The Effects Of A White Butterfly
by Jazuchan2
Summary: The Butterfly Effect: the phenomenon whereby a minute localized change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere. Ayumi Uzumaki's birth changed history. With her memories just out of reach, she navigates this new life. A series of events show Ayumi the truth of her past and her purpose in this new life. She vows to change the only history she knew of, for the better.
1. Prologue

**Hello! Thank you for clicking on my story. This is my first fanfic, so I'm a little nervous. I honestly have no idea how to use fanfiction, so if anything goes wrong or doesn't look right, I apologise. I have about 10 chapters already prewritten, so I'll most likely upload once a week, not sure on the day yet though. I'll upload the first chapter tonight also. Again, thank you for reading, and without further ado, I present to you, The Effects Of A White Butterfly.**

Prologue

I never really thought about my future or dying until I was diagnosed with cancer when I was thirteen. I was more worried about going into high school and making new friends, getting good grades, staying out of trouble and staying with my boyfriend, Ash.

When I was told, I wrote it off as a sick joke and didn't believe anyone. I was too young; I never thought I could possibly get cancer. How could someone like me, who was plain with average brown hair and eyes possibly, have it? I just never considered it, but it did happen.

I didn't want to tell anyone outside of my family, not even my close friends. But the person I absolutely dreaded telling was Ash. What if he didn't want my anymore? What if he thought I was ugly when my hair starts to fall out? Who would want a sick girlfriend when you can have some beautiful healthy girl?

It was half way during my first year in high school and luckily it was holiday time, so I didn't have to deal with school. I dropped out and decided to start home schooling instead. I didn't like it, but it was better than going to school.

I also had to drop out of my dance lessons, which I loved dearly. I was a state champion in ballet for the under fifteen girls.

I avoided Ash as much as possible until he came over one day and demanded I tell him what was wrong.

I locked myself in my room and refused to let him in.

My mother decided to tell him. He was shocked, for sure.

He was silent for a while and I grew more anxious. Eventually he told me he didn't care if I had cancer. He said he knew I would fight and kick cancer's ass and he would be there along with me.

I was over joyed.

For the next seven years, I constantly fought cancer and we thought I had beaten it a few times, but it just ended up coming back again.

During that time, my family, boyfriend and anime kept me sane during all the constant hospital stays.

My particular favourite anime was Naruto; I practically lived and breathed it.

I was eighteen now and there was no hope of my chances at beating cancer. I had accepted it graciously.

I was taken off all my medication and was moved from the hospital back to my own house. My parents had redecorated the room, putting anime stuff everywhere and moving out the single bed and putting a double in for Ash and I.

He lives with us now, well at least until I'm gone.

Right now, I was lying down in bed, leaning against Ash's chest. He had his arms wrapped around me and his chin resting on my head. We were re-watching Naruto Shippuden again and I still loved it, even after watching it so many times.

"It would be so cool to actually meet the Naruto cast. I would totally fan girl out over them." I said quietly.

Ash hummed in agreement.

"Would I need to be jealous?" Ash teased.

"Maybe." I teased back.

"If you were in the Naruto universe, what would you do? Just imagine all the people you would meet and the possibilities of things you could do. You could be a ninja if you wanted too, going on risky missions for the love of your village, better than being bed ridden for your life." Ash murmured.

I was silent as I thought for a little while.

"I don't know. I would have to be in so many places at different times to see important things. Oh, I defiantly would push Naruto and Hinata together though, they belong together. As for anything else, I wouldn't know. I would love to become an awesome ninja though, a strong one who protects the people I love, instead of being a weak sick girl who relies on others." I smiled faintly.

"Ingrid, you're not weak. You are stronger than most people. Who can say they fought cancer for seven years straight while staying positive and strong?" Ash asked.

"Hmm, but if you hadn't noticed, I don't have long left." I said rather dryly.

We fell into an uncomfortable silence.

"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to upset you." I whispered to Ash.

Ash kissed my shoulder and shook his head.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm just not ready to think of letting you go yet. I don't know what I'm going to do without you here." He murmured back.

"You are going to move on. We are only young, I'm positive you will find yourself a nice girl and settle down and be happy. Sure, you will mourn me, and it will take time, but it will happen. You can't live in the shadow of a dead girl." I told him firmly.

"What if I don't want to move on? What if I don't want to betray your memory?" Ash asked.

"Well then, if I was strong enough, I would slap you upside the head for being ridiculous." I smiled.

Ash chuckled quietly.

"I love you." He whispered in my ear.

"I love you too." I answered with a yawn.

"Are you tired? You should get some sleep then." Ash said worriedly.

I hummed in agreement and wiggled around until I was comfortably cuddled up next to Ash, while he soothingly stroked my hair.

"Are you starting to feel the difference being off the meds? You only had a sleep an hour ago." Ash fretted.

I nodded sleepily and I felt Ash take in a sharp intake of breath.

"Don't worry, it doesn't hurt, I'm just tired. It will all be over in the next few days, just stay with me until then." I murmured.

Ash nodded solemnly and hugged me closer. I sighed in content.

"Promise me one thing Ingrid. If there is an afterlife, promise me you will move on too. Be happy with someone as well." Ash whispered just as I was about to fall asleep.

I nodded slowly.

"I hope you do. You defiantly deserve it." That was the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.

Over the next two days, my family and Ash never left my side once. I was tired and achy and I just wanted to go to sleep. I fell in and out of consciousness the whole time. To say everyone was heartbroken was an understatement. I tried my best to reassure them that it would all be fine, but I knew my words didn't help.

On the third night off my medication, I told Ash that it sucked that I couldn't find out what happens to Naruto in the end. He told me that maybe I might find out in the afterlife. I might even haunt Kishimoto-sensei and influence him in his plot line. I laughed, wouldn't that be cool?

Ash cuddled up to me to keep me warm that night. He told me he loved me and kissed me gently. I smiled and fell asleep in his arms.

At 3:00AM I passed away in my sleep. I was content with this ending. I was surrounded by the people I loved and I died happy. I didn't mind so much about dying. I just hoped Ash and I could both move on.

Ash awoke immediately after I died. He panicked when he couldn't feel me breathing. He tried to wake me up, but to no avail. He screamed in agony and my parents rushed in to see the nineteen year old boy crying and holding the girl of his dreams. She was dead.

I didn't see anything after that. I felt myself being pulled away and I didn't bother resisting. There was no need. Everyone would move on. I knew it.

I felt myself in a warm dark place. I couldn't see anything and I couldn't move, but I somehow knew I was safe.

Suddenly there was an intense pressure on me and I saw a blinding white light. I cried out, but for some reason I didn't stop.

I opened my eyes and winced against the light. I noticed though I was being held in someone's arms. How though? I wasn't exactly the shortest person around.

I looked around and noticed I was a lot smaller than everything else.

A lot smaller.

Then I realized I was a baby.

What?

Had I really been reborn…? Was that even possible?

I listened to my new family and recognized they were speaking Japanese! How did I understand? I wasn't fluent in Japanese so how could I understand them?

I tried speaking but it came out as a little gurgle and my new mother smiled down at me.

She had her long dark red hair tied up in a bun and she had sweat covering her face. She had warm jade green eyes. She was very beautiful and delicate looking.

I rolled my eyes over to the other person in the room. I assume it was my father.

He had black shaggy shoulder length hair and dark onyx eyes. He was handsome, for sure.

And then I noticed his attire.

They looked and awful lots like ninja clothes. Then I spotted a forehead protector with a swirl symbol on it.

I've seen that before, but where?

I froze in horror when I realized what had happened.

I had been born into the Naruto universe and my parents were from Uzushiogakure. That explained my mother's red hair.

She was an Uzumaki… I was an Uzumaki. Oh god, what the hell?

I shook in horror. I didn't really want to be born into the Naruto universe! It was too dangerous and there was war and Obito and Madara?! Oh god. Oh kill me now!

Where was I? I thought back to my Naruto knowledge.

Uzushiogakure had been destroyed during the war… So where was I in the timeline?

Had Uzushio been destroyed yet?

My tired brain couldn't think anymore and I eventually fell asleep in my mother's warm arms.

I wonder what kind of life I was going to lead. I just sure as hell hoped it was a safe one… But I had a feeling it was going to be anything but that.


	2. Chapter One

**Here is chapter one. Enjoy.**

* * *

[Chapter One]

Over the next few years, I found out some important things. My name was Ayumi Uzumaki. It turns out, for some reason my DNA got messed up along the lines and I was born an albino. I had the snow white hair, the ethereal pale skin and creepy red eyes.

My mother, Mae and my father, Benkei, both assured me that it didn't make be weird, but unique and beautiful. I loved my parents. I will never forget my first parents, but I loved Mae and Benkei just as much.

I also found out that I was born only a few days after Uzushio was destroyed.

Currently, I was five and we now live in a normal little village on the outskirts of the Fire Country. Mother and Father were both high level shinobi but they didn't work anymore because of me.

Mother and Father both taught me important skills to be a good shinobi from the age I could walk and talk. I didn't pick things up very well though. I trained hard every day and I had tree jumping down fairly well now. I wasn't nearly as good as Mother or Father and it was impossible to keep up with them.

I was improving well at using poisoned senbon, which was good.

Now, you would think being an eighteen year old in a five year olds body would be hard and boring. Well, not so much. It's hard to explain, but it was like I was aware of myself, but at the same time I was a normal five year old. A special one though. I picked things up easier, like walking and talking, because I had a fair idea of what to do already instead of learning everything from scratch like a normal toddler.

Right now, Mother and I were walking through the market, buying things for tonight's dinner. People whispered and stared at me. Some pointed and laughed.

"Mummy, why are people looking at me like that?" I asked innocently.

Mother glanced at me quickly before glaring at the villagers.

"What are you staring at you damn bastards?! Never seen a child before?" Mother hissed angrily.

Ah. There is the famous Uzumaki temper. I wonder if I'll inherit it.

People backed off from the obviously pissed off kunoichi. The village people knew Mother and Father are shinobi and they let them stay out of fear of them, but Mother and Father wouldn't hurt anyone unless they had too.

"Mummy, why do they stare at me like that? Did I do something bad?" I asked again.

Mother sighed sadly and picked me up. We walked over to the vacant park and sat down on a bench.

"Sweetie, you are different from other people. You are special. Your hair is as pure as snow and your eyes are as red as wine. You are a very beautiful person and people are just jealous. They are scared of what they don't know. They haven't seen a child like you before, so the only way they know how to deal with that is by lashing out." Mother explained patiently.

I nodded, though I didn't really understand what she meant.

"So why doesn't the other kids play with me? Are they jealous too?" I asked.

Mother shook her head.

"No, they don't know what to think. They just do as their parents say and nothing more. Don't worry though, you will make friends eventually, it just might take some time." She smiled sadly.

I nodded firmly and grinned up at her.

"Just watch Mummy! I'll take my time to pick my friends so they will be the best friends ever!" I yelled happily.

She nodded and picked me up again.

"How about we go home and start on dinner with Daddy, huh?" Mother asked with a grin.

"Yes, yes! I want to see Daddy!" I yelled, bouncing up and down in my Mother's arms.

Mother jumped and ran through the village with me squealing happily in her arms. The wind in my long air and on my face felt amazing and I would never grow old of it.

When we arrived home, Father was sitting out on the deck cleaning weapons. I grinned and jumped on his back and hugged him tightly around the neck.

"Daddy! Daddy, guess what? I'm going to make the best of friends when I'm older. Mummy said it might take a while, but that's okay!" I told him excitedly.

Father pulled me around off his back and into his lap. He smiled at me brightly.

"Is that so? It's is very important you have good friends in life. I think you will do very well in the future." Father told me.

I nodded happily.

"Do you and Mummy have important friends too?" I questioned.

Father nodded.

"We do. We don't see them very often anymore because we moved away, but we will always be friends, no matter what." Father told me wisely.

I nodded seriously.

"Okay Sweetie, you go get ready for dinner while I finish cleaning these." Father told me with a smile.

I nodded and he patted my head gently and I ran back into the kitchen where my Mother was preparing dinner. I climbed up onto one of the chairs and watched her for a little while.

"Mummy, what kind of friends do you have?" I spoke up.

Mother paused for a moment before continuing.

"I have wonderful friends. We have been friends since I was very young. I think it was back in my academy days I met them. We were only a small group of four, myself included. We were always together and would get into lots of trouble. We were the type of friends that did have our occasional fights, but we were there for each other when it was most important." Mother explained with a soft smile.

"That sounds nice. I want friends like that. I would protect them with my life." I sighed happily.

Mother chuckled lightly. Her child never failed to surprise her with her wisdom.

"I hope so too baby." Mother said finally.

I sat quietly while Mother made and served dinner. Not long after, Father came in and sat down at the table too.

"Guess what Daddy?! I'm going to protect my friends with my life." I said proudly.

Father smiled and nodded while Mother served him his bowel.

We were having nikujaga.

I ate quietly as Mother and Father talked about work and various reports from their spy networks.

While Mother and Father were not active shinobi anymore, that didn't mean they didn't like to stay on top of things.

Apparently there were rouge ninja moving around various little villages looking for remainders of the Uzumaki clan. I could tell Mother and Father were worried they would find us here. They were the only trained shinobi in our village.

After dinner was finished and cleaned up, Mother ran a bath for me.

I was sitting in the bath while she gently washed my long hair.

"You know, you really do have beautiful hair Ayumi. I'm jealous." Mother said gently.

I pouted.

"I don't like it. It's boring and plain. I want red like yours Mummy! Red is such a pretty colour!" I whined.

Mother smiled.

"My red hair is boring! It's an Uzumaki trait that most people have, how boring? Yours is different and unique, don't you think that's better than being the same as everyone else?" Mother told me.

I considered it for a moment.

"I guess so… But I still would rather your hair!" I answered.

Mother chuckled and finished washing my hair. She helped me out of the tub and started drying me off.

When we were done, I was wearing a plain white nightie for bed. When I was all tucked in for bed, Mother told me a short story. It was about Uzushio when Mother was young. It fascinated me.

Mother finished up her story and gently stroked my cheek.

"Sweetie, your Father and I need to go out tonight, but we will be back before you wake up in the morning okay?" Mother informed me.

I nodded.

"Where are you and Daddy going?" I asked.

Mother shifted uncomfortably for a brief moment.

"We have to check out some reports for the village. Don't worry though, it'll be fine." Mother assured me, but she didn't sound very convincing.

I reached up and hugged Mother around the neck and she patted my hair.

"Go to sleep now Sweetie, we will be back before you know it." Mother said cheerfully.

I let her go and snuggled back under my blanket. She kissed my cheek and left, turning out the light. I watched her leave and I couldn't help but have a bad feeling.

I ignored the feeling as best as I could and fell asleep fairly quickly.

Hours later, I was fast asleep when my Mother and Father came bursting into my room. Father quickly woke me up and picked me up, putting me onto his shoulders.

"What's wrong?" I asked sleepily.

Father looked over at Mother who was packing a small bag full of my clothes, senbon and poison. She nodded at Father and he turned his attention back to me.

"You have to leave. We need to take you somewhere safe as fast as possible. I know normally a child of your age would be far too young to understand, but you are different Ayumi, so I'll tell you." Father said quickly.

My eyes widened and I was instantly alert, forgetting my tiredness completely.

"Rouge shinobi are hunting people from the Uzumaki clan and they have been told we are here, so we need to get you out of here. You're Mother and I will take you away as far as we can to protect you. You are the future of the Uzumaki clan Ayumi and you need to be protected." Father explained.

I shook my head vigorously. I didn't like the sounds of this. They sounded like they were going to leave me. They can't, not yet. I'm too young! They are too young!

"No. I want to stay with you!" I told him.

Father smiled sadly.

"We will Sweetie. We will always stay with you." Father said.

He lied to me just now. I know it.

"Benkei." Mother said lowly.

Father nodded.

"We need to go now. Hold on tight, we have to go really fast now Ayumi." He warned me.

I nodded and held on with a death grip.

Mother put my little backpack on my back and we headed out.

We were going insanely fast.

"Ayumi, if we get separated, I want you to go to Konoha okay? There is an Uzumaki there. Her name is Kushina; she is my niece and your cousin. She will look after you." Mother told me as we moved.

I shook my head. I didn't want too! I wanted to stay with Mother and Father.

"No buts Ayumi! It is for your protection and you will go to Konoha! We only live about a day away from there so we should get there by late tomorrow afternoon if we come across no obstacles. I have sent out a message to Konoha asking for assistance for you should we not make it there." Mother snapped.

I gulped and buried my face in Father's shaggy hair. I couldn't defy Mother.

Only after two hours of travel, the rouge ninja had almost caught up to us. Mother and Father said they wanted to go on further but for my protection they had to distract the ninja while I escaped.

We stopped in a highly dense forested area and Father found a tree with a hole big enough in it for me to hide in. He pulled me down from his shoulders and hugged me tightly.

"You wait here until morning okay? Konoha shinobi will be on the lookout for you so just head in the direction of Konoha. We will meet up with you later." Father told me.

I nodded my face all teary.

Father pulled back and Mother scooped me into her arms. She was crying too.

"I love you Ayumi. Always remember okay? Never forget you are special and you will become a great person one day." She told me tightly.

I hugged her and cried.

"I'll see you later Sweetie. We will meet up in Konoha. Stay safe." She told me finally and placed me gently into the tree and kissed me on the forehead.

Father had turned around and I could tell he was hiding tears.

Mother cover up the hole in the tree and it fell into darkness. I couldn't see anymore.

"Goodbye Ayumi." They whispered before I heard nothing more.


	3. Chapter Two

**Hello again. So I've decided that a Wednesday will be when I update this story! Yey. So anyway! Wow, I didn't realise so many people were going to read my story, or favourite and follow... I honestly thought maybe one or two if I was lucky, so thank you guys sooo much! Seriously. I love you guys. And a really special thanks to XLil MEoX for reviewing and giving me some advice! You are seriously amazing. Oh, an I forgot to do the disclaimer, so I'll do it once here, because, guys, I'm no Kishimoto-sensei... xD**

**Disclaimer: I, Jazu-chan, do not own Naruto in any shape or form and I do not gain any profit for this. The fanfic is written strictly for my own entertainment and anyone who reads it. Thank you.**

**And if anyone was interested, the cover art I've used for the fanfic, it was drawn by me, and if you want, when I make my profile, ( I still don't know what to put up there...) I'll put a link to my DA. Mind you though, I haven't got very many pictures up yet and I only recently started using a graphic tablet. ^.^**

**So here is chapter two, enjoy!**

* * *

[Chapter Two]

I fell asleep again and I knew my Father had put a small genjutsu on me and the tree. Knowing him, it must have been day time when I woke up again and the genjutsu fell away.

I pushed on the cover on the tree and it fell off easily. I carefully climbed out of my tree and stretched.

My limbs were achy and stiff from lying in the tree for hours. I looked around at my surroundings. The forest was dense and it would be hard to move around in, but it had a lot of cover.

I looked up at the sky but couldn't see anything because of all the trees. I had to get moving, I couldn't stay here. But before I did that, I pulled my bag from my back and shuffled through the contents.

I found a large amount of senbon and a small bottle of poison. It was just a paralyse poison so it wasn't very dangerous. I sat down and coated the ends of the senbon with the poison. Mother had packed my leather strap where I tuck the senbon in against my arm and wrap the leather around them to keep them secure.

It made for a nasty surprise when enemies can't see them because of my long sleeves.

When I was finished I tucked the poison away and hauled my bag back onto my back.

I figured what direction I had to go in to find Konoha. I hoped their shinobi would find me, because otherwise it would take me three days by myself to get to Konoha. I jumped up into the trees and started moving.

Along the way, I worried about Mother and Father. Would they really meet with me in Konoha? Why were people hunting Uzumaki's? What did we do?

I tried answering my questions myself, but it just made me tired and gave me a headache.

About after roughly two and a half hours of solid traveling, I had to stop for a break. I was tired and had no food or water with me. I stopped and sat down on one of the tree branches. It took me a while to catch my breath and I was sweating a lot. It didn't help that it was a hot day today, even with all the tree cover.

I knew that if I didn't find water within the next hour, I was going to be in trouble. Dehydration was not how I wanted to die. Not out here and not this young.

After another half an hour of resting, I finally decided to get up and move on. I needed to find water, but I had to keep going in the direction of Konoha.

I don't know how long I kept moving for, but I didn't find any water. I was determined to keep going. I sped up and moved through the trees faster than I have ever gone by myself.

After traveling for what felt like forever to my little five year old self, I finally collapsed of exhaustion.

I silently preyed that I was close enough to Konoha for their shinobi to find me before the rouge ninja did. I slid a senbon into my hand just to be on the safe side, before I passed out.

When I eventually woke up, I found myself in an unfamiliar place. I looked around hesitantly and noticed that I was in a hospital room and I was hooked up to different machines.

I wasn't sure whether I should be relieved or worried. Where was I? I thought I was in the forest.

"Ah, you're awake now! Good, good. You must be Ayumi Uzumaki, correct?" Someone said as they saw me awake.

I nodded slowly.

"Where am I?" I asked quietly.

The person who I assumed was a doctor, came over and started checking the monitors.

"I am Doctor Nakamura and I've been looking after you. You are in the Konoha hospital dear. Some shinobi brought you in and you were passed out from exhaustion, both chakra and body related, and dehydration." She explained.

I nodded slowly.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked.

"Only for a day, that's pretty good for what kind of shape you are in. We need to keep you here for a few days to get you some much needed rest and get some fluids into you." Doctor Nakamura told me.

My eyes widened.

"Is Mummy and Daddy here yet? They said they would meet me in Konoha!" I asked worriedly.

Doctor Nakamura shook her head.

"I'm sorry dear, they aren't here yet. We have a team of highly skilled tracking-nin looking for your parents right now. In the meantime, someone is here to see you, she is waiting outside." She said.

I looked at her sceptically.

Who would want to see me? I don't know anyone.

After Doctor Nakamura finished checking me over she left, telling me she would send in my visitor.

A few moments later, a girl who was probably only in her teens, entered the room. She was very beautiful, but the thing that stuck out the most was her impossibly long red hair. I could tell right away she must be an Uzumaki.

"Are you Ayumi? I'm Kushina Uzumaki and I'm your cousin." The woman said.

"Kushina…? Mummy told me about you. Do you know where Mummy is?" I asked.

Kushina came over and sat down in the chair next to my bed.

She shook her head.

"I haven't heard any news on Aunt Mae and Uncle Benkei, I'm sure they will turn up soon though. But in the meantime, I'm going to look after you! We are family, ya know." Kushina answered.

I nodded.

"What's going to happen to me here?" I asked.

"Well, as Doctor Nakamura told you, you will have to stay here for a few days, but don't worry, I'll stay with you, and after that, if we still haven't found Aunt Mae and Uncle Benkei, well, then you will come live with me." Kushina explained.

I didn't say anything. I didn't want to think of Mother and Father not coming back. Secretly deep down, I knew they weren't coming back, but for now, I didn't want to think about it.

I was in a complete state of denial and I refused to think about the possibility of them not coming back, so I locked those memories deep inside my mind, for the time being.

I was silent for a while and I could tell Kushina became uncomfortable.

"Hey, are you okay? Do you need anything?" Kushina asked, breaking the silence.

"I'm okay, I was just thinking. Um, do you want to get to know each other better or something?" I asked quietly.

Kushina smiled gently at me and nodded.

"Well okay then. As you know, I'm an Uzumaki and I came to Konoha from Uzushio. I was born and raised there until I was about seven years old. That's when I moved to Konoha. Umm, let's see. I enrolled into the academy and I was picked on for my red hair and round face but I put them in their place. That's how I got the name Red Hot Habanero." Kushina started telling me.

"Why would people be mean to you about your hair? It's so pretty, like my Mummy's. My hair is boring and white. I wish I had pretty hair like yours." I told Kushina.

Kushina's face showed surprise briefly before she smiled brightly.

"There have been very few people who have complimented my hair, ya know. Thank you Ayumi." She said happily.

I was confused. Why wouldn't anyone like her hair? It was so cool.

"Anyway, what about you? Do you want to tell me something about yourself?" Kushina asked.

I thought for a moment. What to say?

"Um. Well, I'm albino, that's why I have red eyes and white hair. Mummy said I'm special. I lived in a village on the border of Fire Country, but it wasn't a ninja village. Mummy and Daddy were teaching me some ninja skills, but I'm not very good. I can use poisoned senbon okay and I can jump through the trees, but that's it… There isn't much else to say really, expect for my Daddy is an Uchiha, but Mummy said I was an Uzumaki, not an Uchiha." I said.

"Oh! You're half Uchiha? Wow. My best friend is an Uchiha, her name is Mikoto, I wonder if you are related, ya know?" Kushina exclaimed.

I shrugged.

"I don't know. Daddy doesn't talk about his family." I said.

Kushina nodded.

"You said you have a friend? What's she like? Is she an important friend?" I asked curiously.

Kushina looked at me funny.

"Why do you ask?" Kushina said, confused.

I looked down and fiddled with my hands in my lap.

"I don't have any friends. Mummy said it might take me a while, but I will find people important to me when I'm older." I answered quietly.

Kushina looked shocked.

"Why wouldn't you have any friends? A nice young girl like you should have a lot of friends, ya know!" Kushina exclaimed.

I shrugged.

"People don't like me because I'm different. Everyone would stare and whisper about me. Mummy said other people my age didn't want to play with me because their parents told them not too." I explained sadly.

Kushina looked at me with pity.

"You can be my friend if you want. I can be your first friend, ya know!" Kushina said suddenly.

I looked up at her in surprise.

"Really? But you hardly know me." I said.

"That doesn't matter! We are family so we have to get along anyway, so why not be friends at the same time?" Kushina grinned.

I paused and thought about it. She did have a point, why not be friends too? Mummy and Daddy were my friends too, right?

I looked up at Kushina and grinned widely.

"You're going to be my best friend! What do friends do? Let's do something! What do you feel like doing? Let's have something to eat, I'm starving!" I said excitedly.

Kushina laughed and patted my head.

"Whoa, calm down there, you may be an Uzumaki, but you need some serious rest still." Kushina told me.

I nodded, but still grinned widely.

I made a friend! Finally, I did it! Mother and Father would be so proud, even if Kushina was family.

"What's it like being a ninja?" I asked Kushina randomly.

She looked a little surprised at my question, but answered anyway.

"Well, it's our duty. I wouldn't say it's bad or good; there are perks and downsides to being a ninja. We, as ninja, are able to protect our village and the people in it. Most of us suffer lose and also gain true bonds. I don't know that's just how I see it." Kushina told me.

I looked at her in awe.

"We can protect people? I want to protect people! You are my friend, so I want to become a strong ninja and protect you!" I said firmly.

Kushina smiled.

"That can be your nindo! Grow strong and protect the people you love, ya know!" Kushina said happily.

"What's a nindo…?" I asked confused.

Kushina was surprised.

"You don't know what a nindo is…?" She asked.

I shook my head.

"Mother and Father don't talk much about being ninja…" I confessed.

"Oh. Okay then, well a nindo id your ninja way. Something that you live by, a code of sorts. My nindo is to never give up until the very end, ya know!" Kushina explained.

I nodded in understanding. My nindo is to protect the people I love! It's not as cool as Kushina's but I think it's pretty good for a five year old.

"So do you want to be enrolled in the academy once you get out of here?" Kushina asked.

Ninja academy?

"I'm only five; is that old enough to enter?" I told Kushina.

Kushina looked at me with wide eyes.

"You're only five?! I thought you were older than that! You're so grown up for a five year old, ya know!" Kushina screeched.

I grinned.

"Yup, I'm only five! Mummy and Daddy said I have the mental state of someone at least seven or eight! They said I'm an academic genius!" I told the older Uzumaki with pride.

"No kidding." Kushina mumbled.

I ended up giggling and after a moment, Kushina joined in. We laughed for a while until a boy with golden hair and bright blue eyes pocked his head in the door.

I stopped immediately and stared at the newcomer. Kushina was still giggling and took a moment to notice the boy. When she noticed I had stopped laughing she looked at me and noticed me looking at the door, so she followed my gaze.

The boy was watching us with an amused smile.

"Minato! What are you doing here?" Kushina blushed slightly.

Minato stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.

"Sensei said something about you being at the hospital so I rushed over, but it seems you're fine." The boy, Minato, said.

Kushina groaned.

"Of course he wouldn't tell you the full details. How does he even know? I've only been here a short time… I swear that old man is plotting something." Kushina whined.

Minato laughed and then turned to me with a friendly smile.

"So who might you be? I haven't seen you in Konoha before." Minato asked.

I was about to answer when Kushina butted in.

"She is Ayumi Uzumaki, my little cousin, ya know! I'm going to be looking after her! Watch out though, she is only five but acts more like an eight year old." Kushina said happily.

I giggled.

Minato chuckled lowly at Kushina's antics.

"You're an Uzumaki too huh? Where are your parents?" Minato asked.

I flinched and looked away.

"Mummy and Daddy said they would meet me in Konoha, but they aren't here. Kushina said there is a team looking out for them… They will come, I know they will." I said, trying to sound hopeful.

Minato caught on and apologized for being insensitive. I shook it off.

"Um, so how long are you in here for?" Minato asked.

"Only for a few days I think." I said.

Minato nodded and looked over at Kushina for further explanation.

"Ayumi is severely dehydrated and suffered great chakra loses. She needs lots of rest and fluids and then she can be released into my care. Ayumi is half Uchiha so we don't know which half is more dominant, so I don't know how long it will take her to heal." Kushina explained.

Minato nodded.

"Half Uchiha and half Uzumaki? That's a very powerful combination you have there. Do you have the Sharingan?" Minato asked.

I shook my head. He nodded and looked lost in thought before snapping out of it and smiling brightly.

"Kushina, can I talk to you for a moment?" Minato asked.

Kushina looked confused.

"Yeah…? Just talk then." Kushina said.

"Kushina, outside, please?" Minato asked.

She still looked confused but nodded and stood up.

"I'll be right back, just sit tight." Kushina told me with a smile.

I grinned back and nodded.

When they left the room, my smile faded and I frowned at the door.

Why would Minato need to talk to Kushina in private? Is he going to tell Kushina to stay away from me like all the others?

After a few minutes, Kushina came back in with Minato trailing behind her. She came back over and sat down in her seat again. She stilled grinned at me like before, and I sighed in relief. She didn't change!

"Ayumi, it was nice to meet you today, but I have to go now. I have to go see the Hokage, but I'll come by again soon." Minato said with a warm smile.

I nodded and waved him goodbye. He turned and left.

Kushina relaxed back in her chair and grinned at me.

"Now what? I've only been here a while and it's already boring in here. We should get a TV with some movies or something." Kushina whined.

I giggled.

Kushina obviously gets bored easily and doesn't like to sit still. Mummy is like that, unlike Daddy.

I was about to say something to the bored Uzumaki, but one of the nurses walked in with a tray with a bag full of clear liquid and a needle with a tube on it. I gulped. I don't like needles.

"Hello Ayumi. I'm Subaru and I'm the new nurse on shift now. We need to change over your bags and give you a little bit of medicine to speed up the healing process, okay?" She said kindly.

I nodded and Kushina stood up and moved out of the way of the nurse.

"This medicine is going to make you sleepy, but don't worry, that's supposed to happen. I suggest you try to get some sleep while the medicine is working." She told me, but was more hinting at Kushina.

The nurse changed the bag with the clear liquid in it and then moved onto setting up the needle. She put the medicine in it and attached the tube to my IV. She then pumped the liquid into my IV and I felt the cold medicine go into my arm. It was creepy.

"Okay dear, all done now. It the medicine should start to work in the next few minutes." She said kindly and then left.

Kushina sat back down and smiled softly.

"Do you want me to stay with you until you wake up?" Kushina asked.

I shook my head.

"You can leave if you want. I'll be asleep anyway and I know you will just get bored." I told her.

She nodded.

"Okay then. I've leave after you fall asleep. When you wake up, have one of the nurses call me, I'll come back straight away okay? Maybe I'll bring you something to eat, instead of eating horrible hospital food." Kushina said with a wink.

I tried to giggle at Kushina, but I yawned instead so it sounded like a weird mix of a giggle and yawn.

Kushina burst out laughing.

"What was that?!" She exclaimed laughing.

I giggled along with her and ended it with a happy sigh.

Just as Kushina promised, she stayed with me until I fell asleep. I sighed happily and had a smile on my face as I slept. I ignored the feeling of the prospect of losing my parents and focused on Kushina. She was the best and I loved her already. I dreamt of a future here in Konoha with Kushina, Mother and Father, and it looked pretty great.


	4. Chapter Three

**Hey guys! So here is chapter three. So I'm not sure if this chapter really flows... I think it's a bit rushed, even though I wrote it a while ago. Maybe it would have been better if it was separated into two chapters, but with added stuff to make it a proper chapter, but oh well. I really wasn't sure on how to write this one, but admittedly, it was fun, even if it is rushed.**

**But wow, I've had more people follow and favourite! Welcome to all those people! I hope you enjoy my weird all over the place fanfic!**

**Now, I just got back from my last day of term at school and I am so tired. xD I'll see you all next Wednesday! Enjoy.**

* * *

[Chapter Three]

Over the next two days, Kushina barely left my side, which displeased the nurses. Minato came by a lot to hang out with Kushina, and it was obvious they were into each other, even I could tell, and I was only five.

I liked Minato; he was funny and silly around Kushina.

Kushina and I knew practically everything about each other now; all we could do in the hospital was talk anyway. She even told me about the Kyuubi, and how he was going to be sealed into her when Grandma Mito died. Kushina told me she was scared, but Grandma Mito told her she is strong and will be able to do it.

When she told me about the Kyuubi, I had the vague feeling I had heard about him before, and the name Kurama floated into my head before disappearing and I forgot about it.

My doctor deemed me well enough to leave the hospital today, but I was told the Hokage wanted to speak with me, so I was still sitting in my little room with Kushina sprawled out on a sofa she pinched off someone.

"Why does the Hokage need to see me?" I asked Kushina.

She shrugged.

"I don't know, Minato just said he wanted to see you." Kushina admitted.

I frowned.

"You don't think he is going to make me leave Konoha do you…? I am an outsider after all…" I said quietly.

Kushina sat up and looked at me sadly.

"Sweetie, he isn't going to make you leave. You are an Uzumaki, and Uzumaki's are always welcome in Konoha. Besides, I'd like to see if that old man would even try making you leave with me around, ya know!" Kushina announced.

I grinned over at her.

"Thank you." I told her.

"What for…?" Kushina asked.

I just shook my head and smiled.

Kushina shrugged and went back to being sprawled out on the sofa.

Before long, there was a knock on the door and one of the nurses pocked her head in.

"The Hokage is here to see you now, Ayumi." She informed us.

I nodded and Kushina sat up with a heavy sigh.

"Well, let's see what he has to say then shall we?" Kushina said.

I nodded and patted down my hair and sat up nicely, Kushina giggled.

The Hokage came in then, with a few ANBU and Minato trailing behind him. I frowned slightly, why was Minato here too?

"Ah, you must be Ayumi Uzumaki! Welcome to Konoha, young one. I am Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage." The man announced.

I bowed my head respectively and he chuckled.

"You may raise your head. I just wanted to have a little chat, nothing formal." He said.

I nodded and looked back up at him.

"I hear you are only five years old! Minato has told me a lot about you. You seem very mature for your age, that's quite remarkable we only have one other child that is mature for his age, Kakashi Hatake, though he is a year older than you. But there are other children in Konoha, whom I'm sure you will make plenty of friends with." The Hokage continued.

I smiled brightly. Another person like me, maybe we could be friends? The prospect of having friends made me nervous, but excited.

Kushina snorted.

"Kakashi has a stick up his ass; he would just look down on Ayumi." Kushina spoke up, and Minato looked at her worriedly.

The Hokage just chuckled.

"Maybe Ayumi would be good for Kakashi. He doesn't have any friends so maybe Ayumi could befriend him?" He mused.

I nodded eagerly.

"Moving on then, I also heard you are half Uchiha? That's interesting. You must be related to some of the Uchiha here then. I wonder if you will possess the Sharingan in the future. Just imagine, having the Sharingan and the power of the Uzumaki… You will be one powerful child one day, Ayumi." The Hokage said.

I didn't get where he was going, so I just nodded.

"Say, Ayumi, how do you like the sound of being specially trained by some of Konoha's best shinobi?" The Hokage asked me.

I lit up like a light bulb.

"Oh yes! Then I can become strong and protect the people I love, like Kushina and Minato and Mummy and Daddy!" I exclaimed happily.

Everyone smiled warmly at me.

"Then it's settled. I'll speak to some people and organise something for you. Rest up for now and we'll see each other again soon." The Hokage smiled and left, with the ANBU trailing behind. Minato stayed with us and Kushina was glaring at him.

I was shocked. She was just smiling a minute ago.

"You planned this, didn't you?" Kushina asked quietly.

Minato sweat dropped.

"Um, n-no. I just told Hokage-sama about Ayumi is all… I didn't know he was going to do this." Minato stuttered under Kushina's harsh gaze.

I was terribly confused.

"Do realise what you have done Minato?! We are at war! Ayumi has the potential to be one of the most powerful shinobi in our time and you just sealed her fate! She has no choice but to go to war with us! Minato, she is only five years old for god's sake! How dare you." Kushina fumed.

Everyone was silent.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think Hokage-sama would do this so soon." Minato said softly.

Kushina didn't stop glaring at Minato.

"Just go. I don't want to see you for a while." Kushina said quietly.

Minato nodded and left quickly.

We were still for a moment before Kushina huffed angrily and flopped down onto her sofa.

"What just happened…?" I asked.

Kushina looked up at me with sad eyes.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen!" She cried.

I was shocked.

"What? What's going on Kushina?" I demanded.

"You are half Uzumaki and half Uchiha. Both of those clans are two out of the three most powerful clans in existence. You have the Senju, who have always warred with the Uchiha, and then you have the Uzumaki who are descendants of the Senju and are a powerful enough clan to be whipped out in fear. Put those three together and you have a very powerful shinobi. Ayumi, do you understand?" Kushina started to explain.

I nodded.

"We are at war right now, and because you are very advanced for your years, you can be trained from this young age to be a weapon of war for Konoha, and we can't stop it. Hokage-sama is off his head for even thinking of this. I'll try my hardest to stop you from having to go out into battle, I promise Ayumi! I will not let my family be sacrificed for no reason!" Kushina finished.

My eyes were wide. A weapon…? I didn't want to be a weapon! I just want to be a normal shinobi who fights for those I love.

"Are you sure Kushina…? Please don't make me go to war. I don't want to die." I whispered.

Kushina suddenly stood up and flung herself at me and hugged me tightly.

"I won't let them touch you!" Kushina growled.

I snuggled into Kushina and calmed myself down. I'm pretty sure I had calmed down before Kushina had finished spewing insults about the war… Defiantly an Uzumaki…

When Kushina pulled back she smiled brightly.

"Alright, let's blow this place, ya know!" She announced.

I giggled and nodded.

Kushina gathered up her things, and I grabbed my little back pack with my stuff in it. I sweat dropped when I saw Kushina had more stuff than I did, and I was the one staying in here!

"What are you going to do about the sofa you stole?" I asked.

Kushina paused.

"Just leave it there. Someone will move it back. Eventually…" Kushina chuckled.

"Okay, just remember to keep resting. I suggest no strenuous exercise for at least another day but then at least take small breaks when you do start exercising." The nurse told us as we were checking out.

Kushina nodded and signed the papers for me to be in her care temporarily. When she was done, she smiled down at me and took my hand. She led us out of the hospital and into the streets of Konoha.

I looked around with wide eyes. It was so big! And pretty!

People looked at us, and some stared, but most people went along with their business.

"So now that you are out of the hospital, I have a surprise for you, ya know!" Kushina told me excitedly.

"What is it?" I asked curiously.

Kushina shook her head.

"You'll just have to wait until we get there." Kushina told me.

I nodded happily and we continued walking through Konoha until we came to a little shop.

Kushina led me inside and quickly disappeared to talk to the owner. The shop was a clothes shop full of shinobi gear and clothes. Everything looked so awesome!

When Kushina came back, she led me over to a mirror and grinned at me.

"Okay, Ayumi. Cover your eyes!" She told me and I closed my eyes with a grin.

I felt Kushina wrap something around my shoulders and pull something up onto my head.

"You can open your eyes now, ya know!" Kushina said happily.

I slowly opened my eyes and blinked at my reflection.

I was wearing my normal white dress, but I had a blood red cloak with a hood added to it. Kushina had pulled the hood up and pulled my hair out forwards to lie on my shoulders. My face was framed in the blood red colour and it suited me.

"I know you want red hair like mine and Aunt Mae's, but I think your hair looks beautiful white, so I thought maybe if I bought you a hood you can have both! The red really suits you, just like any other Uzumaki, ya know! Now you can have both the red and white and still look amazing!" Kushina gushed.

I grinned and turned and jumped into Kushina's arms.

"Thank you!" I breathed.

I hugged her tightly and she laughed.

When Kushina put me back down, she took the cloak off of me and gave it to the shop owner who put it in a pretty box for me. Kushina and I thanked her and off we went again, with me holding on tightly to my box.

When we finally arrive at Kushina's apartment, she gave me a little tour of the two bedroom place. There was a decent size kitchen, a small bathroom, two bedrooms and a good size living room and dining area. My bedroom was right next to Kushina's. It was a very nice apartment and I looked forward to staying here.

Over the next two weeks Kushina and I had become used to living with each other quite well and we were getting along great. Kushina had introduced me to some of her friends, including Mikoto Uchiha, who was Kushina's best friend. I liked Mikoto, she was really nice. She also was the sane one out of their little duo. Kushina was insane half the time, and Mikoto was there to rein her back in.

Kushina was still a little angry with Minato, but she let him come over at my request. I understood he was just doing what he had too, so I forgave him. It wasn't really his fault anyway, and I knew Kushina couldn't stay angry at him forever.

Right now, Minato, Kushina and I were sitting in the living room having some lunch. We were having salt ramen, Kushina's favourite.

Minato was talking about his latest training session with his sensei, Jiraiya. I was fascinated. Jiraiya was one of the legendary three sanin! Minato was lucky to have him as a sensei.

Minato was still talking when there was a knock on the door. Minato paused and we all looked over to the door, not wanting to go answer it. Whoever it was just interrupted Kushina from her salt ramen, and that was a bad thing.

Kushina sighed and stood up, going over to open the door.

It was the Hokage.

Kushina let him in and Minato and I stood and bowed respectively.

"What can we do for you today, Hokage-sama?" Minato asked politely.

Minato and Kushina could tell something was up straight away when they noticed the Hokage wasn't smiling like normal.

Kushina came over to me and stood very close to my side.

"Ayumi, I have something I have to inform you of." Hokage-sama started and I felt Kushina stiffen beside me and Minato looked away sadly.

"I'm so terribly sorry to inform you Ayumi, but our team found your parents. They didn't make it. The rouge Nin hunting you and your parents caught up to them and they willingly went with the rouges to keep them away from you. They tortured them to try and get information on you out of them, but they didn't give in. I'm terribly sorry that I had to give you this news. You have my sincerest apologies." Hokage-sama told me.

I stood there frozen. I was clinging onto the hope that my parents were alive… but now they were truly gone.

Tears started to form in my eyes and I started to fall, but Kushina caught me and pulled me into her chest.

Before long, I started to cry louder and louder.

Hokage-sama turned to Minato.

"Look after them both; this will be hard on Kushina too." Hokage-sama said and then left.

Meanwhile, I was crying hysterically into Kushina's chest. She rubbed my back soothingly.

"They promised… They promised they would meet up in Konoha." I said in between sobs.

"I know, Sweetie, I know. Shh, it's going to be okay." Kushina tried to sooth me.

After a half an hour of solid crying, I grew angry.

They lied to me. They promised they would come for me!

Kushina sat with me the whole time I cried. But now I wanted to be left alone. I stood up suddenly.

"Ayumi…? Have you calmed down yet?" Kushina asked kindly.

I whipped my eyes and shook my head.

"Leave me alone! You don't know me! Just, just leave me alone!" I screamed before trying to make a run for it.

Minato silently watched the exchange and anticipated this would happen, so he was ready when I tried to run.

He grabbed me and held onto me tightly, but he wasn't expecting my strength.

I struggled and managed to get one arm free. I suddenly went limp in Minato's arms and he dropped me from surprise. I quickly sprung back up, punched him square in the face and then kneed him in the balls.

He dropped like a sack. If I wasn't too worried about getting away, I would have felt guilty for hitting Minato so hard.

I ran for it while Kushina quickly made her way to the wheezing Minato. I ran out the door and didn't look back.

Being in Konoha a few weeks, I knew my way around now so I headed for a training field that I thought was abandoned.

I was so angry and upset; I wasn't sure how I felt entirely. I felt like crawling into a hole and never coming back out, but I also felt so angry at Mother and Father for leaving me, that I just wanted to destroy something.

My head hurt from my emotions trying to battle it out for dominance. I also felt a burning in my eyes, but it didn't compare to my head.

I was so lost and confused. What was I going to do without Mother and Father? They were everything to me and now they have left me by myself…

"What are you doing here? This is a private training ground." A voice called out.

I ignored it.

"Hey you! Are you listening? I said this is a private area, you need to leave." The voice said again.

I still ignored it. I couldn't be bothered with this right now.

Something moved into my field of vision and I noticed it was a boy around my age with spiky white hair.

"Hey- Are you crying…?" The boy asked with a scoff.

I glared at him venomously.

"So what if I am?" I hissed.

The boy scoffed again.

"What, did you try to train and it didn't suit you, little princess? I thought Uchiha were tougher than that." The boy mocked.

"No. I just found out my parents died, so if you will excuse me, I would rather be left alone right now. And I'm not an Uchiha, I'm an Uzumaki." I growled.

The boy glared back.

"Well, you clearly have a Sharingan, so you must be Uchiha, besides, why would you cry over something like that? Why not prove to them you are stronger than wallowing in self-pity. The Uchiha don't wallow." The boy told me.

I didn't have time for this.

"Look, I don't know what's wrong with you but I don't have the Sharingan! Just go away. Like you know anything! I bet you have a loving family who are always there for you! My parents were the only ones I had! Everyone hated me for my stupid white hair and creepy red eyes. They would mock and stare at me and my parents were the only ones there for me, so excuse me for trying to mourn!" I hissed before I turned and ran off.

What a little asshole! What was all that crap about being an Uchiha anyway? I know I haven't activated it, I think I would have remembered that.

I ran towards the park and luckily no one was there. I slowed down as I reached the park and sat myself down on the swing. I calmed myself down and just started to stare into space. I could calm myself down well if it was needed, I guess I inherited that from Father.

I didn't want to feel this. I hated it. I had to stop it. Immediately.

Desperately, I searched within myself for a solution, to sooth the pain.

I opened my eyes. Ah. I found it.

I felt a sort of switch flick inside me.

I was strangely calm now, it was unnerving. I felt like this was wrong, but I couldn't help it. Why bother having to feel anything when you can just, switch it off? I was a weird sensation, I didn't feel the anger and hurt I was feeling before, and I was grateful for it.

I don't know how long I was sitting in the park on my little swing before somebody's feet entered my vision.

I looked up from the ant I was staring at and saw Minato looking at me with a mix of concern and kindness. He looked at me in shock, seeming to stare at my face for a while before he recovered.

"Ayumi? Are you ready to come home now? Kushina is really worried about you." Minato asked kindly.

I didn't say anything as I hopped off the swing.

"You're not going to make a run for it again are you?" Minato asked with worry and slight amusement.

I shook my head.

Minato stared at me for a moment before shrugging it off.

"Okay, good Kushina will have my head if you run off again." Minato chuckled.

I nodded.

As we went back home, I could tell Minato was watching me. I didn't really care.

When we arrived back home, Kushina immediately rose off of the sofa and moved towards me but Minato quickly shook his head and she backed off with a worried look.

I moved past Kushina and Minato and went into my room and shut and locked the door. I removed my shoes and went and lie down in my bed. I buried myself under the blanket and fell asleep.


	5. Chapter Four

**Hey guys. Sorry for updating a couple hours late, my cousin was visiting. I'm not sure if I'm going on away in the next few weeks so I might not be able to upload next week, but things aren't certain yet.**

**Anyway, again, thank you for reading, read and enjoy.**

* * *

[Chapter Four]

"Minato, I'm really worried about Ayumi, ya know! She had barely said a word for three whole weeks and she just sits around staring off into space! Where did the cheerful little energetic five year old go?! This is horrible! You said you saw the Sharingan right? It must have activated because of the grief. What if she falls to the Uchiha curse?" I head Kushina say to Minato from the kitchen.

I was sitting on the window sill in the living room, while Kushina had announced an emergency meeting and called Minato over and locked them both in the kitchen. I wasn't sure if Kushina knew I could both hear them, but it didn't bother me.

So as Kushina has said, I had done pretty much nothing for three weeks. I just didn't feel like getting out of bed or bothering to pretend to feel anything anymore. Kushina always dragged me out of my room and forced me to eat something during the day, but then I would just mope around the house. I didn't even bother going outside, it was too hard.

"Maybe we should take her to go see someone, maybe a councillor or someone to that extent?" I heard Minato ask.

I sighed inwardly. If that wanted me to talk, they could just ask themselves. Why bother wasting money just for me to tell someone my whole life story?

"I don't know Minato, it's a lot of money and I don't think it would work. Ayumi has shut down and she is too young to understand how to fix it. I think I'll give her some time and then we'll see about going to see a professional." Kushina answered.

I didn't hear Minato say anything, so I assumed he just nodded or something.

After a few more moments, Kushina and Minato came out of the kitchen and Kushina froze guiltily when she spotted me in the window sill. She glanced over at Minato and then guiltily looked back at me.

"Did you hear us…?" Kushina hesitantly asked.

I nodded and Kushina groaned while Minato tried to hide his assumed smile from Kushina.

"So what do you think about going to see someone then?" Minato spoke up.

I shrugged.

"It doesn't bother me. I don't get the point in going to talk to someone about your life. It's just a waste of money." I said emotionlessly.

Minato nodded respectfully while on the other hand, Kushina did not look pleased.

"Then how are we supposed to help you?! It's like you've died along with Aunt Mae and Uncle Benkei! All you do is mope around and hardly speak! If it wasn't for me forcing food down your throat, you would have died from starvation!" Kushina yelled angrily.

"Kushina." Minato started as he stepped forward to stop her.

"No, don't Minato. She needs to hear this." Kushina hissed.

Minato hesitantly stepped back. He didn't want to provoke the wrath of Kushina any further. Kushina turned back to me.

"You need to wake up and realise this is not normal! Where did the happy little girl I know go? You killed her." Kushina fumed.

I stared at her.

"There is nothing wrong with me. Why should I have to feel emotions when they just hurt me? I don't want to hurt again Kushina." I told her.

Kushina looked stunned and reeled back a bit. That was before she became really angry.

"How dare you! You are not the only one who was hurt over their deaths! I loved them too and I have to suffer through the pain of mourning just as much as anyone else, because that's what it means to be human! We feel pain, lose, and sadness, but we also feel happiness and joy and excitement and love, ya know! How can you call yourself human anymore? You killed Ayumi Uzumaki, my dear little cousin and I won't forgive you until you bring her back!" Kushina roared, tears falling down her face.

I felt something start to crack inside me.

"I didn't kill Ayumi, I am Ayumi, and I'm just different now. I know I'm human, but I just don't feel anything anymore and it's better than hurting." I responded.

Everything was quiet.

And then suddenly there was a blur of red move in front of me and smacked into me with a huge force. I tumbled backwards, holding my throbbing cheek. I looked up from my spot on the ground to see a furious Kushina with Minato holding her back.

I was shocked, really shocked. Kushina had never raised her hand against me before. I felt the ice inside of me shatter and melt under Kushina's fiery rage. I couldn't help it. Kushina's fire and passion was to much for my façade.

I slumped forward and pressed my cheek into the cool ground.

"I'm sorry." I whispered, tears starting to fall down my face.

At first Kushina and Minato didn't hear me over their bickering, but Kushina eventually heard my quiet sobs and apologies.

She stopped and her anger left her immediately.

Minato caught on as to what happened and he let Kushina go back backed off.

Kushina dived at me and pulled me into her arms. I held onto her tightly and let out heart wrenching sobs.

"I didn't mean too! I don't know what happened, I just stopped feeling! It was scary and I felt cold and I didn't know what to do! I don't want to hurt! Mummy and Daddy are gone, what am I supposed to do?!" I cried into Kushina's chest.

"It's alright, it's okay. You're back now, so everything is going to be alright. It will. Everything will get easier." Kushina murmured to me.

Minato read the situation and decided to give Kushina and me some time. He gave Kushina a knowing look and politely excused himself.

In the meantime, I was eventually calming down and my cries had reduced to sniffles as I held onto Kushina tightly.

Kushina pulled back enough so she could see my face. She was smiling at me warmly.

"Welcome back Ayumi. Promise me you won't ever do that again, ya know? This is going to sound harsh, but you are going to be trained as a kunoichi and in this time and age, death is a certain thing. Others you know and grow to love might be killed in the war and you need to be ready and stable. You can't shut down like you did; it's dangerous for yourself and for others around you. Do you understand?" Kushina told me.

I nodded hesitantly. I knew she was right, and I knew I had to train and grow strong, both physically and emotionally. I was going to try my hardest to protect the people I love, so something like this doesn't happen again.

I looked up at Kushina with determination shining clear in my eyes.

"I want to go see Hokage-sama." I said firmly.

Kushina was shocked for a moment.

"Are you sure? We can just wait a few more years until you are safely in the academy. There is no need to rush out so readily for war." Kushina said, trying to mask her worry.

I could understand, she was a Chuunin herself and she had already seen some of the effects of the war. She had been kidnapped by the Kumo-nin just because of this war as well. She was just worried about me.

I nodded, determined.

"I'm willing to train and become strong and serve Konoha. But not until I know I am ready and I know that I can defend myself and those around me. Just watch Kushina, I'll protect you and Minato for sure!" I told her.

Kushina wasn't sure what to think of that, but she smiled gently anyway.

"Okay. I trust you, but even if you think you may be ready, in the future, it will be up to your sensei's to know when you are ready to join us." Kushina warned.

I nodded and smiled.

"Let's go see Hokage-sama!" I cheered springing up from my place on the ground.

I wanted to be happy again, for Kushina, Minato, and for myself.

I ran over to the door and squirmed, impatient.

"Whoa, calm down already. You haven't even put on your shoes yet!" Kushina laughed, coming over to put her own shoes on.

I huffed in frustration as I quickly put on my shoes. When I was done, I turned to Kushina with a sheepish smile.

"What…?" Kushina asked.

"Piggyback me?" I asked.

"Uh… Why?" Kushina looked really confused.

"Because I want to get there faster!" I stated.

Kushina stared at me, bemused.

"Hell no." She answered.

I was about to cheer when her answer sunk in.

"Wait. What? Why the hell not?" I whined.

She laughed.

"Well it will be good practise for you to try and keep up with me. If worse comes to worse and you lose me, well you know where Hokage Tower is anyway." Kushina said with an evil grin.

"Fine, fine. Let's just go." I grumbled.

I left the apartment and headed off before Kushina, who had to lock our house up.

I was happily running and jumping through the alleys and rooftops of Konoha, when suddenly a rock was thrown at my head.

I lost control of myself and went tumbling down onto the street. I wildly looked around for the culprit. Then I was a grinning Kushina watching me from a rooftop, holding a pile of small rocks.

My eyes widened

"What the actual hell Kushina?!" I screeched.

She laughed evilly and jumped down to where I was.

"I could have died!" I hissed.

She laughed.

"No, you wouldn't have. I made sure to go easy on you." She answered.

"Why would you even throw a rock at me in the first place?! I was in a good mood and everything." I growled.

"Ooh, feisty. Defiantly a little Uzumaki in the making! Anyway, why not do some little exercises on the side? Learning to dodge things while moving is good practise for the future when it will be necessary to dodge immediately. My little rocks are nothing compared to weapons, people, exploding tags and what not." Kushina reasoned.

I glared but didn't say anything. I couldn't fault her logic, but that didn't mean I liked rocks being thrown at me!

Kushina grinned and helped me up.

I sighed. This was most likely going to be a painful experience.

By the time Kushina and I reached Hokage Tower, I was sore all over and I was sure I was going to be black and blue the next day. Kushina didn't hold back on me, and I was glad she didn't, but damn, she didn't have to throw the rocks that hard!

I was brought back to reality when Kushina tugged on my hand gently. I shook myself and walked into Hokage-sama's office behind Kushina.

"Ah, Ayumi and Kushina, what can I do for you two today?" Hokage-sama smiled warmly at us.

I looked up at Kushina and she nodded reassuringly.

"I want to start training as soon as possible. You said you were going to talk to some people for me…?" I asked.

Hokage-sama raised his eyebrows.

"Are you sure, so soon? Kushina-san told me about your, uh, state, although it seems you have recovered now." Hokage-sama asked.

I nodded.

"I'm sure. I know what I want now that I am back to my old self. I don't want to be like that ever again, so I want to become strong to protect my precious people." I said firmly.

Hokage-sama nodded.

"I understand. Luckily I have spoken to a few people and they are on standby for you. They are doing this as a personal favour to me and they do have schedules of their own, so I ask you respect that, not that I don't doubt you will." He explained.

I nodded eagerly.

"I'll have them summoned right away. Please wait a moment." Hokage-sama said, turning to the ANBU in the room and nodding.

The ANBU flickered off immediately.

Hokage-sama chatted with us for a few minutes before there was a knock on the door and he called out for them to enter. Two men walked in and my eyes widened.

They both had white hair like mine! I could tell they weren't albino, but they had white hair!

Kushina's eyes went wide also before she grinned at the two men.

"Ayumi, allow me to introduce to you, your new sensei's, Sakumo Hatake, Konoha's White Fang and Jiraiya, one of Konoha's three sanin." Hokage-sama introduced.

The man who was pointed out to be Sakumo Hatake smiled gently at me. The other man, Jiraiya, who I know was Minato's sensei grinned at me.

"So you must be Ayumi Uzumaki! Minato has told me so much about you, young lady." Jiraiya boomed.

I blushed and smiled shyly.

"I didn't think you would take on another student Jiraiya-sensei." Kushina laughed.

"Well, Minato did say Ayumi would be an interesting student and I was interested. Besides, can't say no to the old man." Jiraiya chuckled, nodding in Hokage-sama's direction.

Kushina laughed again.

"So, now that the introductions are out of the way, let's discuss training." Hokage-sama spoke up.

We nodded and turned back to him.

"Since Jiraiya is away during the week, he will train Ayumi on the weekends and whenever he has a day off. Sakumo will train Ayumi all through the week, on exceptions when he has missions. Ayumi already can use some chakra control for tree walking and what not. She has had some experience in poisons and senbon wielding. Also, she has activated the Sharingan recently and I have regrettably not been able to contact the Uchiha about that yet, but I will make time for it today. Our main focus for now will be taijutsu, furthering her chakra control and working with the Sharingan. I want weekly updates on her progress, and after six months of training, we will schedule another meeting to plan out next steps in her training. Any questions?" Hokage-sama explained.

"This may be an obvious question, but why don't we put Ayumi into the academy? Also, if I may ask, how does she possess the Sharingan? That is a trait only the Uchiha's have…" Sakumo asked.

Everyone, minus Sakumo already knew why and they were surprise Sakumo didn't know.

"Ayumi is only five years old. Ayumi's mother was an Uzumaki, but her father was an Uchiha, she only just recently found out about her parents death and that caused the awakening of the Sharingan." Hokage-sama explained.

Sakumo nodded politely, not showing any obvious emotion.

"Also, Ayumi will not be attending the academy when she is of age, she will be far ahead of the other students her age. By the time she is old enough to enter the academy, hopefully she will already be Chuunin level." Hokage-sama added.

I gaped.

When was this decided?

"What about the social aspect? How will she make friends?" Kushina demanded angrily.

Hokage-sama sighed sadly.

"As regrettable as it is, it just wouldn't be fair on her or the other students if she was to attend the academy. I'm sure Ayumi can make friends in her own time, if not, I'm sure she will quickly grow on the older generation anyway, as she will be with them the most. She will be an important part of Konoha, and putting her into special training, I think will be the best option." Hokage-sama said.

No one wanted to defy the orders of the Hokage.

I frowned.

The whole point in me training was to protect my precious people! How can I do that if I don't have any…? I have Kushina and Minato, and I may sound selfish, but I wanted more people close to me. I wanted some friends who were around my age at least or something like that. And come on, Kushina and Minato were already Chuunin, I couldn't protect them yet, I was too weak.

I inwardly sighed sadly.

I had no choice. It was either this or nothing.

I looked up at Kushina, who wasn't very happy with this.

"It will be fine. It might just take me longer to make friends, remember?" I told her, reminding her of my Mother's words.

She looked worried for a moment before sighing.

"Fine, fine, I guess I will have to make it my mission to make sure she is sociable." Kushina announced.

I grinned up at her and she smiled back.

"So when do we start?" Kushina asked.

"Tomorrow. I know it's sudden, but we should start as soon as possible. I will notify you when I have discussed Ayumi with the Uchiha's." Hokage-sama replied immediately.

I paused and let it sink in. I was starting my training tomorrow!

Noticing my excited mood, Kushina grinned and held onto my shoulder gently so I wouldn't go bouncing off the walls or something.

"Even though tomorrow is a weekday and Jiraiya has a team to watch, I've given him the day off so both he and Sakumo can test your abilities and get a feel for Ayumi's style." Hokage-sama said with a pleased smile.

Jiraiya grinned.

"A day off you say? Good, good, I can further my research!" Jiraiya grinned.

"The hell you will! You have to be testing Ayumi, not peeking on girls at least ten years younger than you." Kushina yelled.

Jiraiya chuckled.

"Don't worry, dear Kushina, I'll look after your cute little Ayumi." Jiraiya leered.

"If I didn't know you were a great teacher, I would forbid you from even looking at her." Kushina mumbled.

I giggled and Jiraiya looked at Kushina sheepishly.

"I don't know if I should take offence to that… Ayumi is far too young for my tastes." Jiraiya said.

"Yeah, well one can never be too careful with you, ya know." Kushina shot back.

Hokage-sama and Sakumo was watching out interactions with amusement. We must have looked odd, come on a young Chuunin like Kushina berating and teasing Jiraiya, a legendary sanin on Konoha? Strange indeed.

Hokage-sama was a busy man so we were all dismissed fairly quickly during Kushina and Jiraiya's ranting.

Kushina and I went back to her place, and yes, Kushina was throwing rocks at me again, but I did manage do dodge a few.

When we arrived home, Kushina quickly called Minato and told him to come over.

"So let's all go out and celebrate for you starting your training, ya know!" Kushina crowed happily.

"You just want to go out for ramen with Minato, don't you?" I asked, sweat dropping.

"Yep." Kushina grinned, popping the p.

"You're not going to even deny it…?" I asked.

"Nope." Kushina answered.

Yup, she just wanted the ramen… Maybe also to spend time with Minato, but it was always the ramen with my fellow Uzumaki.

Not long after, Minato arrived at our house and Kushina dragged us off to grab some ramen.

"If you don't mind me asking, is there a particular reason Kushina is kidnapping us?" Minato asked me and Kushina happily chatted on about ramen.

"No, not really. Her excuse is that we need to celebrate me on starting my training. It's not really anything special, normal people start a little older than me, that's all…" I answered.

Minato chuckled.

"Well it is a good thing to celebrate I guess. Any excuse these days will do with the war going on." Minato said.

I didn't think of that. Maybe he was right.

Minato and I were quiet for a moment while I watched how they adoringly gazed at each other.

"So when are you two going to start dating?" I suddenly asked.

Kushina skidded to a halt and Minato walked into her, he caught her just as she was about to tumble forwards. They both blushed.

"W-what are you talking about, ya know?!" Kushina stuttered.

I smiled innocently.

"You both obviously like each other, so why not date? People date when they like each other right?" I explained.

Kushina and Minato were at a loss for words, and they were both blushing like crazy.

"Aren't you a little young to know these things? Besides, it's not like that, or that simple…" Kushina answered.

Minato looked hurt for a moment before he covered it up. Poor thing looked like a whipped puppy. I wanted to comfort him.

"Okay, okay, I get it. Let's go then." I said dismissively.

Kushina whirled back around and happily continued making her way down the street. Minato hung back a little and I quickly went up to him and offered him a huge smile.

"Don't worry, Kushina talks about you all the time, she is totally into you. Hey, you know what?! I can be your wing man! Except I'm a girl, but you get it…" I said excitedly.

Minato blushed but smiled.

"Thanks Ayumi." He said with a wink.

I giggled and we caught up to Kushina, who was already waiting for us at the small ramen restaurant.


	6. Chapter Five

**Hey guys! Welcome to another update ^.^**

**So sorry being a couple hours late again... I had a funeral to attend to and when I got home, I went for a sleep. Funerals are emotionally draining D: But anyway, I hope you all had a good week. Mine was okay, I had my cousin staying with us so I got absolutely nothing done, including writing, which sucks, but hopefully I can get my inspiration back and continue! :D**

**So yeah. Again, thanks for reading, feel free to review, and enjoy! 3**

* * *

[Chapter Five]

Kushina woke me up nice and early the next morning, much to my displeasure. Kushina stayed up late with her friend Mikoto Uchiha, giggling about boys, namely one, Minato Namikaze, so as you might have guessed, I didn't get much sleep. I wasn't a morning person anyway. I stumbled out of my room and into the kitchen where Kushina was already making breakfast.

"Good morning Ayumi! Ready for today?" She happily asked.

I half-heartedly glared and shook my head.

"Oh. Are you in one of those morning moods again?" Kushina asked.

I nodded and sat down at the table and Kushina handed me a plate of food. There was eggs, bacon, toast, grilled tomato and I had a glass of orange juice. I raised my eyebrow at Kushina.

She laughed.

"I thought I might try something different! You need a good meal today to keep up your strength, ya know!" Kushina announced.

I nodded and quietly ate my breakfast.

When I was finished, I thanked Kushina and shuffled into the bathroom for my shower. I had a nice long shower and was finally able to wake up properly when I was done. My mood did a 360 turn and now I was happily putting on my clothes.

My new shinobi clothes were like my normal clothes, but with some adjustments.

Instead of my normal snow white Victorian style dress, I had a lacy top that had a simple scoop neckline and it ended at the top of my thighs. The sleeves were long and billowy, perfect for hiding small weapons. The neckline was a simple that was ruffled and had lace going around the top, and around the bottom of the top.

For pants, I just wore simple black leggings with bandages wrapped around my left thigh to hold the weapons pouch Kushina had given me. For shoes I wore average black flats.

To finish off my outfit, I pulled on my dark red hooded cloak from Kushina. I happily pulled the hood up over my head and pulled my hair out to fall onto my shoulders.

I liked the looks of the girl in the mirror. She was a different looking shinobi, with the weird clothes, but she looked determined and proud.

Grinning, I happily went in search of Kushina, who she herself, was putting on her kunoichi wear.

"How do I look?" I asked as Kushina was brushing out her long hair.

She turned to me and grinned.

"You look wonderful! Just like Little Red Riding Hood, ya know!" Kushina laughed, jumping up to hug me.

"This little Red Riding Hood will kick the wolf's ass though!" I announced.

Kushina laughed and nodded.

"Okay, Sakumo will come and pick you up and take you to the training grounds in twenty minutes. I can't say I know when Jiraiya-sensei will get there though…" Kushina informed me.

I nodded.

"Come with me, I want to give you some things." Kushina said grabbing my hand and dragging me over to her wardrobe.

She pulled out some things and went and lay them down on the bed.

I peered around Kushina to see what she had brought out.

There were wooden training shiruken and kunai, senbon, a small vial, which I assumed had a weak poison, and finally and small medical kit.

"Now, you've had next to none training with shiruken and kunai so you will train with wooden ones. I know you can handle poisoned senbon well, so you can have real ones, along with a small poison just to irritate the skin a little. I'm giving you a medical kit because I'm paranoid, not that I think you will need it today! But still…" Kushina said happily.

I grinned and jumped into her arms, hugging her tightly.

"You're the best Kushina! I'm so glad I met you." I cried happily.

Kushina nodded softly and hugged me back, before putting me back down on the ground.

"Oh, Minato is coming over soon to see you off this morning." Kushina announced.

I grinned cheekily.

Minato seemed to be coming over more and more lately, he basically lived here… They were so into each other.

"Kushina, what do you think of Minato?" I randomly asked.

I was Minato's wing women after all.

"Hmm, Minato is a really good guy. He saved my life not too long ago; I told you about that didn't I? I used to see Minato as a pathetic girly boy, but I see him in a new light now. He is strong, confident, focused and extremely kind. Minato is my best friend, ya know." Kushina said dreamily.

I winced. Friend zoned? But she was talking about him in an adoring way so… Maybe there is hope for him still!

Just a moment later, we heard a knock on the door.

"That would be Minato, you go answer it Ayumi, while I finish up here." Kushina said.

I nodded and happily skipped to the door and threw it open.

"Minato!" I rejoiced and jumped into his arms.

He chuckled and held me on his hip.

"Good morning to you too, Ayumi, is Kushina here?" Minato asked.

I nodded and leaned close to his ear.

"Kushina is still getting ready, but guess what? She said you are strong, confident, focused and extremely kind! Isn't that good? If you play your cards right, she will defiantly fall for you." I whispered into his ear.

Minato blushed fiercely and stuttered a bit.

I giggled and slid out of Minato's arms and dragged him into the living room.

"How do I look? Like a ninja right?" I asked happily.

Minato nodded.

"You look great! Are you ready for today? Sakumo and Jiraiya-sensei are very good teachers and I'm sure you will get along with them." Minato said kindly.

Just as I nodded, Kushina came in all ready to go.

"Morning Minato!" She chirped happily.

Minato blushed and nodded. I giggled.

For the next twenty minutes, I made sure Kushina and Minato were constantly talking to each other. Minato knew what I was doing, but didn't want to say anything, and Kushina just didn't notice. Well, I didn't think she did.

Suddenly we heard a knock on the door and I smiled nervously. That has to be Sakumo-sensei.

Kushina went to answer the door and Minato and I stood up. Minato smiled warmly at me.

"I hope you have a good day today, Ayumi-chan! Show Hatake-san and Jiraiya-sensei everything you have, don't hold back, it will help gauge you and prepare you for your training. Good luck!" Minato said with a huge smile.

I hugged him and he chuckled.

"I'll see you tonight, to see how your training went okay?" Minato said patting me on the head.

I nodded and grinned. I turned and quickly made my way to the door, where Kushina was waiting with Sakumo-sensei.

"Good morning Ayumi-chan, ready for today?" He greeted.

I grinned and nodded.

"Good, good. Let's be on our way then. Jiraiya should meet up with us some time later." Sakumo-sensei said.

I was about to step outside with him until I felt myself being dragged back and pulled into a crushing hug.

"Did you forget about me so easily Ayumi?!" Kushina teased.

"Kushina… You're embarrassing me in front of sensei." I whispered in her ear.

She laughed.

"I just want to say goodbye and make sure you're going to be okay! I don't want my adorable cousin getting hurt today, okay? Be careful, ya know." Kushina announced.

I groaned. She had to go all protective on me now?!

"Kushina you can let me go now. I promise I won't get hurt." I whined.

"Just a little longer…" She said sheepishly.

"Minato! Minato Kushina won't let me go to training!" I called out.

Minato came in and gently pulled Kushina off me.

"Don't worry, she'll be okay. She is a tough one." Minato reassured her.

She glared half-heartedly at him and I grinned.

I turned to Sakumo-sensei who was watching us with an amused smile.

"I apologise for Kushina, she is a strange one." I said.

Kushina growled, Minato laughed and Sakumo-sensei shook his head with a chuckle.

"That's quite alright; Kushina-san wouldn't be the first over protective figure." He smiled.

"Okay then, let's go! Minato, Kushina, I love you and I'll see you later today!" I said and Minato nodded with a smile while Kushina looked worried.

Sakumo-sensei said goodbye and we turned and left.

As we were walking to the training grounds Sakumo-sensei started asking me some questions.

"So what area do you want to specialize in, Ayumi-chan?" He asked.

I paused and thought about it.

"I'm not sure what I want to specialize in, but I know I have a lot of chakra and a strong life force, so maybe ninjutsu or genjutsu? I'm not sure on taijutsu though." I said after a moment.

Sakumo-sensei hummed in thought.

"What about kenjutsu? Weapons might suit you. I hear you are good with poison and senbon? With the amount of chakra you have, you also could be a med-nin if you like, but I cannot help you in that field." He continued.

I nodded.

"Well, I haven't had any training in taijutsu, so I would like to improve on that first, but I think I will specialise in genjutsu and ninjutsu. If I can manage to mix the two together, I should be strong enough to protect people." I pondered.

Sakumo-sensei nodded.

"Mixing ninjutsu and genjutsu will be difficult, but I think with the right help we should be able to do it. Hokage-sama has been in contact with the Uchiha and he is setting up a sensei for genjutsu for you, I can coordinate with them to help you mix nin and genjutsu." Sakumo-sensei said.

I grinned. This was going to be awesome!

Twenty minutes later Sakumo-sensei and I were waiting at his private training grounds for Jiraiya-sensei, who was late.

Sakumo-sensei decided to teach me some stretches while we were waiting, so that was what I was doing right now. Surprisingly it didn't hurt yet. Sakumo-sensei told me for someone who hasn't stretched like this before, I was doing well, and I might excel in taijutsu for my flexibility.

I was in the middle of doing a bridge stretch when Jiraiya-sensei finally arrived. I grinned and waved, forgetting I was using my hand to help support myself, so I slammed onto the ground in my back.

"You should be careful Ayumi, pay attention to what you are doing." Sakumo-sensei scolded lightly.

"Yes Sensei, I'll pay more attention from now on." I said obediently as I sat up.

He chuckled and waved Jiraiya-sensei over.

"You're late." Sakumo-sensei accused.

"Yes, yes, I had some, uh, important business to attend too." Jiraiya-sensei said sheepishly.

Sakumo-sensei sighed.

"Because you are a legendary sanin and it's only the first day, I won't tell Kushina-san what you were up too instead of assessing her cousin." He told the Toad Sage.

Jiraiya-sensei chuckled nervously.

"Okay then, now that Jiraiya-sama has blessed us with his presence, let's get started." Sakumo-sensei said with a smile.

I nodded eagerly.

"First off, we will test you on basic skills of a child just starting at an academy level. But first I want to see your chakra control level and how well you can actually wield senbon and maybe after that we can test you on your nature affinity, alright?" Sakumo-sensei explained.

I nodded seriously.

Sakumo-sensei motioned for me to stand up and I quickly jumped up from my spot and followed him when he and Jiraiya-sensei turned and started walking off.

We walked over to the edge of the training field where huge old trees were growing. We stood at the base of one of the trees.

"Okay Ayumi, I want you to run up the tree, right up to the top and pick a leaf from a branch and then come back down." Sakumo-sensei said.

I nodded and stepped a few paces back. I took in a deep breath and concentrated my chakra flow to my feet. Once I directed the chakra there, I smiled with determination and opened my eyes.

I launched myself at the tree and started running up it, without much difficultly until something was thrown at my head. Yes, sounds familiar right? I screeched as I lost concentration and toppled out of the tree.

I landed heavily on my knees and cringed when I knew I was going to have bruises there.

"Let me guess, throwing rocks at me will help my concentration?" I asked bluntly at Jiraiya-sensei who looked a little guilty for throwing the rock at me in the first place.

Jiraiya-sensei rubbed the back of his head nervously. If I had to guess why he was worried, it would be because of my potential Uzumaki temper.

"How did you know? I was hoping you would have dodged it…" He muttered.

I sighed and stood up, brushing off any dirt on me.

"Kushina did the same thing to me yesterday. I agree that the method should work, but that doesn't mean I like rocks being thrown at me…" I answered.

Jiraiya-sensei blinked at me for a moment before laughed out loud.

"Of course Kushina would try something like that on you! I was the one who trained Minato like that." He laughed.

I didn't say anything. It might have been funny if Minato would have been hit by the rocks too, but he is a child prodigy, he wouldn't get hit by some small rocks.

"Okay, well Ayumi, Jiraiya-sama is going to throw rocks at you as you run up the tree, try to be aware of the rocks as you run, so it will be easier to avoid them. If you can't avoid them, then just ignore them and continue concentrating on getting to the top of the tree without falling out." Sakumo-sensei explained.

I suppressed the urge to groan, and nodded anyway.

I easily directed my chakra flow into my feet again and prepared to run up the tree. I focused myself and ran up the tree. I dodged the first rock and continued up the tree. I only made it a little ways up before I ended up being hit by another rock and falling out of the tree again.

Huffing in frustration, I sprung back up and went for the tree again, only to be hit by a rock and fall back down.

I tried and tried, making very little progress and only dodging a few of Jiraiya-sensei's rocks.

After an hour and a half of running up the tree, I had only made it half way and it seemed I couldn't go any further, because of the rocks being thrown at me.

I practised for another hour until I fell out of the tree again and just laid there staring at the stupid tree.

"You are doing very well for someone with no training Ayumi, though I suggest we take a break now and then move onto something else." Sakumo-sensei said, coming over to block my view of the stupid tree.

I smiled shyly and nodded. I thought I was doing horribly, but for Sakumo-sensei to praise even me, I must be doing as well as he says. I heard he wasn't the type to give out false praise. Well, that's what Minato and Kushina told me…

I stood back up and followed Sakumo-sensei and Jiraiya-sensei back over to where we were in the first place.

"Okay Ayumi-chan, you have ten minutes to relax and do what you want, wonder around for a bit, but don't go too far." Jiraiya-sensei said as he sat down and pulled out a book.

I bowed respectively before scampering off to explore the training grounds.

Walking around, I inspected all the equipment used for training by the Hatake's. It was really all top of the line stuff.

That reminded me; Sakumo-sensei had a son didn't he? I think his name was Kakashi. I remember Hokage-sama saying he was like me, way to advance for our years and I wanted to be his friend, but Kushina said he had a stick up his ass.

Maybe I could ask Sakumo-sensei if I will be training with Kakashi in the future. He won't be going to the academy either right? If I'm not, then he wouldn't be either. I made a note to ask Sakumo-sensei about that.

After wondering around for a few minutes, I decided to head back over to Jiraiya-sensei and Sakumo-sensei. I went and sat next to Jiraiya-sensei.

"What are you doing?" I asked curiously.

Jiraiya-sensei smirked.

"I am writing one of the best pieces of literature that this world will ever see!" He boasted loudly.

My eyes widened.

"Really? What is it? Can I read it too?" I asked excitedly.

Jiraiya-sensei laughed.

"Maybe when you're a little older you can have a look. It's for a more grown up audience." He leered.

I frowned.

"I may be young but I'm old enough to read that sort of thing right?" I huffed.

Sakumo-sensei sighed, leaning against a tree.

"Jiraiya-sama please do not encourage that sort of thing. Kushina-san will have our heads if Ayumi read that kind of thing." He said.

Jiraiya-sensei paled.

"What is it then? Can you at least tell me?" I pleaded.

"Ayumi-chan, Jiraiya-sama writes things that are for adults only and has very inappropriate material…" Sakumo-sensei said awkwardly.

I nodded and sighed in defeat.

"Why don't we start up our training again then shall we? I don't like seeing such a down face on a lovely young girl like you Ayumi-chan!" Jiraiya-sensei announced.

Sakumo-sensei looked like he wanted to face palm.

Me, obviously not knowing the full extent of his words, grinned and happily agreed, while Sakumo-sensei was muttering something along the lines of 'I hope Kushina-san didn't hear that…'

"Alright, so you can use poisoned senbon right? Let's see just how far your parent's teachings went. You have senbon on you, yes?" Jiraiya-sensei said.

I nodded and pulled out the senbon and poison vial Kushina had given me.

Quickly dipping the senbon in the vial and drying them off, I asked what to do next.

"Well, now we see how well your accuracy and speed is. Senbon are hardly used for killing, they are normally only used to distract your opponent. Senbon are also used in missions to take out an opponent quickly and quietly, if you use the right techniques." Jiraiya-sensei answered.

Jiraiya-sensei motioned for me to follow him over to the targets area. The area wasn't very big, but it had targets placed all around us in a circle. Some were on tree, others on boards and just standing along, or hanging from places.

Jiraiya-sensei led me over to a line of targets that were placed neatly in a line.

"Alright, first off, I want to see how well your aim is, and then we will go from there." Jiraiya-sensei told me.

Nodding firmly, I placed the senbon, bar one, back into my bag. I stepped back from the target and concentrated on the centre. I pulled back and quickly threw the senbon at the target, and it hit the target with a solid thunk. The senbon had only missed the centre by two centimetres.

Jiraiya-sensei whistled.

"That's pretty good aim for someone so young. Now let's see if that was just luck or skill. Continue until you run out of senbon, and then we will move onto something a little harder." Jiraiya-sensei said with a small smile.

I hummed in agreement.

Heading up to the target, I pulled out the senbon I had thrown. I had thrown it pretty hard; the senbon was pretty well far into the wood.

Stepping back into position, I focused again and started to throw the senbon. I tuned out of the world and focused on the target, nothing else. I wasn't even vaguely aware of my surroundings.

When I had gone through all my senbon, I had about fifty senbon Kushina had given me, all coated in poison.

I snapped out of my own little world and turned to Jiraiya-sensei, who was watching me curiously.

"Well, you certainly do have some undeveloped strength in you. But, you need work on speed and focus. Now before you say you can focus perfectly fine, just listen. Yes, your focus is fine, very good in fact, but you focus so much, you tune out the rest of the world and that is dangerous for a shinobi. If you block out your surroundings like that during battle, you will most likely kill your opponent, but you are open for someone else to kill you before you even notice." Jiraiya-sensei explained and lightly scolded.

"How do I fix it then? I would like to be able to focus still, but how can I open up to what's around me?" I asked, confused.

Jiraiya-sensei thought about it, and then sighed.

"We will have to retrain you completely on how to focus, which will take time, and we only have six months to train you on academy level taijutsu, chakra control and the Uchiha have to get you up to speed with the Sharingan. Putting all that training together, while reteaching you on how to focus and some other things on the side… Well, you are lucky you have Sakumo and me as teachers." Jiraiya-sensei muttered.

"Okay, but why do I have to be academy level in six months? By the time I'm able to graduate, I would be at ANBU level by then? Why can't I just progress like a normal shinobi?" I asked.

Jiraiya-sensei looked a little uncomfortable from my question.

"Well, the Hokage thinks it would be best for you to have a special training regime. As an Uzumaki and an Uchiha you could potentially become a very powerful shinobi, surpassing both your clans. If people were to know this, they might come after you and kill you while you cannot defend yourself, especially in this war, so we want to make you as strong as possible to save yourself from others and so you can protect Konoha and its people." He explained.

I sighed.

Life was going to be hard as an Uzumaki/Uchiha…


	7. Chapter Six

**Hey guys! Welcome to another update! Things have been hectic for me this week. I've been getting ready for my first anime convention this weekend!**

**Anyway, so I thought I might address something. I haven't wrote such a young character, such as Ayumi, so I have no idea on how to write her. Yes, she is advanced for her age, but re-reading my chapters, I've realised she sounds much older than I intended. So when I wrote the chapters, I just wrote on auto pilot, so yeah, that explains that, if anyone was wondering. I am trying to fix this in the chapters I'm trying to write at the moment, but I've had bad writers block lately so it's hard to write and think of how I'm doing it. xD Eheh**

**Thank you for being patient with me and reading! Enjoy! :D**

**R&R if you please**

* * *

[Chapter Six]

For the rest of the week, I mainly trained with Sakumo-sensei, but Jiraiya-sensei did come by a lot. I think he was spending more time with me than actually doing his work…

During our training sessions, we still were doing the tree walking and I was still getting rocks thrown at me and I was still falling out of the tree. I wasn't making much progress, much to everybody's annoyance.

We also practised on my throwing skills. My aim was near perfect on a still object, but a moving one… Not as good, by far. I was being retrained on my concentration, so I was being taught to try and focus on more than one target moving at the same time. So far that wasn't going very well either, but luckily my Sensei's are patient with me.

I was supposed to start on my taijutsu training this past week, but with my training with the tree walking, senbon training, working on my concentration and my Sharingan training… We decided to leave it until later; I was only five you know.

That reminds me; I started my Sharingan training a few days ago! My new Sensei is Kagami Uchiha; he is a distinguished member of the Uchiha clan, one of the top members. He is in his fifties I think. I like him; he is kind, but stern and treats me well.

It seemed my Sharingan had an anomaly, but we didn't know what exactly was different about it, though it seemed faded in my eyes, but that could be because my eyes already were red, it worked like a normal Sharingan and everything. Kagami-sensei said it might have something to do with a possible upgrade in the future and he was very interested in keeping a close eye over my Sharingan, but luckily he promised not to tell anyone.

So today was Saturday and I was training with just Jiraiya-sensei. We were still training on that one tree that I still couldn't run up without getting hit by a rock… but at least now when I fall out of the tree, I don't hurt myself. I had learned how to break out of the fall and land neatly on the ground without hurting myself, and that also showed I had great flexibility. So that was a good thing.

"Open yourself to your surroundings Ayumi! If you can do that, you will be able to dodge the rocks!" Jiraiya-sensei huffed in annoyance.

"I know, I know! I'm trying my hardest here." I growled.

Jiraiya-sensei sighed.

"Yes, I know. Okay, let's try again. I'll speak to you while you run up the tree; you focus on my voice okay? If you can do that, you can try to focus on me when I'm silent, after that, moving objects should be a breeze." Jiraiya-sensei said.

"What about chakra signals? Wouldn't it be easier if I can sense objects through chakra?" I asked.

"Yes, while that's good in theory and it does work, some shinobi can completely mask their chakra, and this is also why we are doing this training, so you can sense people and objects without chakra. A lot of shinobi channel some of their chakra into the weapons they are using to enhance their power. This is also more effective if you have wind chakra, which is good for weapons." Jiraiya-sensei explained.

"I understand how that works. So are you going to teach me how to channel my chakra into my senbon? And how do I get wind chakra?" I asked.

Jiraiya-sensei chuckled.

"We can do that after you master the tree walking. But you don't just get wind chakra, you need an affinity for it, take the Uchiha's for example, they normally have an affinity for fire chakra and Uzumaki normally have wind, but because you are from both clans… I have no idea what kind of affinity you will have." He further explained.

I nodded.

"How do we find out then?" I asked.

"Well, we use chakra paper. You send a little bit of chakra into the paper and depending on what happens to the paper, that's what affinity you get! It's simple really." Jiraiya-sensei boasted.

I nodded.

"Okay, so you promise we can do that after I master the tree walking and focusing better?" I asked excitedly.

"Yes okay but you have to master it by next weekend or we will skip using chakra paper and move onto taijutsu." Jiraiya-sensei warned.

"Yes Sensei!" I chirped happily.

"Good. Now I'll talk to you and you go up the tree, focus on my voice while also focusing on going up the tree, mind you though, I will still be throwing rocks at you." Jiraiya-sensei nodded.

"Okay, but what are you going to talk to me about…?" I asked.

Jiraiya-sensei paused for a moment before grinning widely.

"I shall recite the first page of my first novel, The Tales of a Gutsy Ninja!" Jiraiya-sensei crowed happily.

That hit my interest.

"That Tales of a Gutsy Ninja…? What's it about?" I asked excitedly.

Jiraiya-sensei grinned.

"It is a tale of a daring ninja with the name of Naruto! He strives to never give up and battles many fierce enemies even in the direst situations!" Jiraiya-sensei boasted.

"That sounds so cool! Can I read it?!" I asked quickly.

He nodded.

"Yes, but not right now, right now we have some training to do! I shall read to you until you get up that tree okay? Today I will give you the rest of the day off to do some training by yourself and I'll go find you a copy of the book." Jiraiya-sensei announced.

I nodded eagerly.

"Okay then Ayumi, I'll start reading when you are ready." Jiraiya-sensei said.

I nodded and turned back to the tree, focusing my chakra into my feet again. When I had focused on my chakra, the tree, and the booming voice of Jiraiya-sensei, I began.

This time I made it about a metre further up the tree than I normally did and I dodged most of the rocks Jiraiya-sensei threw at me.

When I landed on the ground in front of Sensei, I grinned and cheered.

"Did you see that? I did it! Your plan worked Sensei!" I cheered happily.

Jiraiya-sensei chuckled and ruffled my hair.

"So you did! Well done Ayumi. If you continue to progress by one metre at a time, soon enough you will be able to reach the top and grab that leaf." He praised.

After I had calmed down from my initial high from making progress, I smiled lightly at my Sensei.

"So what now Sensei? Do we try again?" I asked.

Jiraiya-sensei shook his head.

"I have some other things to attend too, so we will be leaving it here for now. I suggest you continue with some training on your own for a few more hours before heading home for the rest of the day, you deserve a break kid." Sensei told me.

I eyed him playfully.

"Would these things you have to attend to have something to do with your 'special research'?" I asked cheekily.

Jiraiya-sensei puffed up.

"Yes it is, if you must know. This research if very important, but don't tell Kushina or Minato okay kid? Keep it between us." He warned.

I snickered.

"Sure, I won't tell. Promise." I said with my fingers crossed behind my back.

"Okay good! I'll be on my way then. I'll see you here bright and early tomorrow Ayumi. Have a good day." Sensei said before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

I turned and headed over to the training targets. Sakumo-sensei had set up a system of sorts that allow the hanging targets to move as I hit them. For example, when I hit the first target, the second one begins to move, and after I hit that, and so on. It was a great way to help me train by myself, even if the targets move the same way every time I use it.

For the next few hours, I ran through the course multiple times, trying to get a better time than the last. I think my best time was two minutes, and only missing three out of the thirty targets, which was pretty good, well for me at least.

When I was finished and set the targets back in their original position, I headed home.

It was around three o'clock when I arrived back home. I found myself in the kitchen where Kushina was reading some scrolls at the table.

When she looked up at my entrance she grinned.

"Ayumi-chan! What are you doing back so early? I didn't expect you home until after dinner." Kushina asked.

I smirked.

"Sensei had some 'special research' to do so he gave me the rest of the day off!" I rejoiced with feign innocence.

Kushina narrowed her eyes.

"Did Sensei also elaborate on what this 'special research' was?" She asked.

I shook my head.

Kushina huffed angrily.

"Stupid Jiraiya, leaving you just so he can go be a disgusting pervert! He is going to get it next time I see him." She growled.

I withheld my laughter.

Sometimes telling on Jiraiya-sensei was totally worth it, just to see him get into trouble with Kushina.

I sighed happily.

"So what are you doing?" I asked Kushina, who was still seething silently.

She turned to me and smiled.

"I'm practising my fuinjutsu, which is the art of sealing. Uzumaki are the masters at sealing. Aunt Mei was very good at fuinjutsu if I remember correctly." Kushina replied.

I nodded.

"Mummy would always draw different things, so they were seals then? No wonder she never let me try…" I answered.

Kushina chuckled.

"Well, it can be dangerous for people who don't know what they are doing… Anyway, come here, I'll show you a little?" Kushina asked.

I nodded eagerly. Fuinjutsu was the Uzumaki's specialty right? It would be awesome if I could become as good as Mother.

Over the next week, I had almost been able to reach the top of the tree and grab that leaf. Jiraiya-sensei said I was progressing now faster than he had expected. I also was working with Kushina and Minato at night on fuinjutsu, it was really hard. I was learning how to recognize the different patterns and combinations to make up a seal… but I still was a long way off from being able to read them and comprehend them in the least.

Kushina said with my extreme amount of chakra, it would be hard learning fuinjutsu, as you need precise control over your chakra. Not enough, and you won't be able to make a seal, but a tiny too much, you could blow yourself up…

I was also still practicing my focus on moving objects with Sakumo-sensei. I was still having some trouble with that one, as I had to do four things at once, dodge wooden kunai from Sensei, focus on my surroundings, hit moving targets, and use chakra in my feet to be able to reach the targets and move around the course.

I could tell both my Sensei's were worried about the slow going in my progress. Wasn't I supposed to be some powerhouse of a ninja who is possibly the best since the time of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha? Wasn't I supposed to master taijutsu, chakra control and use of my Sharingan in only six months?

So far I had been training for about a month and a half and I had barley accomplished anything…

I remembered that there was another boy around my age who was advanced right? Kakashi… I was fairly sure his name was Kakashi. He was Sakumo-sensei's son right?

Kakashi Hatake… I made a note to ask Sensei about him the next time I trained with him.

I was quickly making my way to the training grounds during the next week, because I had a training session with Sakumo-sensei, and I was determined to ask him about Kakashi.

When I arrived, Sakumo-sensei was still setting up the things we were going to use for training today.

"Good morning Sensei!" I chirped happily

Sakumo-sensei looked over at me with a gentle smile.

"Good morning Ayumi. You're early today. Why don't you come help me set everything up?" He said smiling.

I nodded and moved over to help him set up dummies and the normal targets.

"You're in an awfully good mood this morning. Did something good happen?" Sensei asked as we were setting up.

"Not really. But I wanted to ask you something really important!" I grinned.

"Oh? What is this really important question you want to ask?" Sensei chuckled.

"Well, Hokage-sama and Kushina told me there was another boy in Konoha who is advanced like me. That's Kakashi, your son right?" I asked.

Sakumo-sensei looked a little surprised before smiling gently.

"Ah. Yes, Kakashi is indeed my son. Why do you ask?" He answered.

I grinned.

"Well, I want to meet him of course! I don't have any friends around my age, and I think he might be a good friend." I announced.

Sakumo-sensei stared at me for a while before grabbing my shoulders and grinning like an idiot.

"That's a wonderful idea! Kakashi needs a friend! I think someone like you would do him a world of good. You know what? I'll invite him here on one of his days off and you two can train together." He said happily.

"Wait. He works…? I thought he was around my age?" I asked, confused.

Sakumo-sensei pulled back and looked off into the distance happily.

"Kakashi is only a year older than you, but he has already graduated from the academy and has become a genin! Minato is his sensei." He said, looking very proud.

"What?! He is already a genin? So that means… He graduated from the academy in only two years?!" I screeched.

Sakumo-sensei looked a little startled.

"He entered when he was four and graduated at five so he did in in a year, but is there something wrong…? Why are you so worked up over that?" He asked.

"Advanced? He is clearly not advanced. He must be some sort of prodigy… How can I become friends with someone like that? Especially if he will look down on me…" I reasoned.

Sakumo-sensei sighed wearily.

"That's exactly why Kakashi doesn't have any friends… He looks down on people and doesn't understand them, or doesn't even try to. He distances himself away from everyone else. I think it would be a good idea if you could try to be Kakashi's friend. Or at least try and be there for him. As I said, someone like you would do him some good." He explained.

I softened.

Well, Mother did say it would be hard making friends… I'll just have to try my hardest with Kakashi Hatake.

"I'll do it. I'll try and become his friend. Maybe he can teach me some things." I said with determination.

Sakumo-sensei smiled and nodded.

Conveniently enough, Sakumo-sensei sent a message to me later that night, telling me Kakashi had the day off the next morning. I was pleased, but I was also worried about how it will turn out.

Luckily Minato was coming over for dinner, so I was sitting at the kitchen table again, going over some fuinjutsu script until Minato arrived.

The fuinjutsu still wasn't going very well. I still couldn't recognize the basic patterns for a simple storage scroll or explosive tag. If I couldn't even recognize the pattern, how could I remember it and be able to distinguish different seals and create them…?

Not long after, the doorbell rang. Kushina didn't even pause in her cooking.

"Ayumi, can you please go answer the door." Kushina said as she was moving about the kitchen.

I nodded and stood up to go over to the front door.

Pulling the door open, I happily greeted Minato with a hug.

"Minato!" I said happily.

He chuckled.

"Hello to you too, Ayumi-chan." He said, picking me up as we went into the kitchen together.

"Dinner will be ready soon, so do make yourself comfortable." Kushina greeted Minato.

"Thank you. I can't wait to see what's for dinner tonight." Minato said happily.

"You'll see. Ayumi, please clear the table, and go put your scrolls away thank you." Kushina said.

I nodded, and Minato put me back down on the ground.

Quickly gathering all my scrolls, I rushed into my bedroom and tucked them away under my bed for later reading.

When I was done, I raced back into the kitchen, where Minato was now sitting down at the table, adoringly watching Kushina, who was just about finished cooking.

I purposely sat down across from Minato, so Kushina could sit next to him.

I grinned.

"So I hear you have Kakashi Hatake on your genin team. You never told me." I questioned.

Minato looked surprised.

"Yes, Kakashi is on my team. You never asked, and I didn't think you would be interested…" Minato said guiltily.

I giggled, seeing him looking guilty wan funny. He was so cute.

"What's Kakashi like? I want to be his friend. Sakumo-sensei said Kakashi doesn't have any friends, and neither do I, and Mummy promised I would make great friends one day, and I want to start with Kakashi!" I announced rather loudly.

Minato sweat dropped, Kushina looked over her shoulder and laughed.

"What…?" I asked.

"Well… Kakashi has a rather unique personality Ayumi, and he doesn't really get along with others…" Minato mumbled.

Kushina snorted.

"Unique personality? Kakashi has a superior complex. He doesn't bother dealing with people below him. As I have said before, he has a stick up his ass." Kushina said.

Minato sweat dropped again.

"He isn't that bad… He is an outstanding shinobi and has displayed the potential for good teamwork with his team mates, so he can't be that bad right? I think trying to make a friend out of Kakashi would be a good idea Ayumi." Minato said.

Kushina sighed and started plating up, what looked like katsudon.

"So who else is on your team? Are they like Kakashi too?" I asked curiously.

Maybe if I made friends with Kakashi, I could become friends with his team mates too…

Minato smiled.

"Well, our team makes up of two boys and a girl. The girl is Rin Nohara. She is an inspiring medic Nin. She is very soft spoken and likes to get along with everyone. You know Kakashi Hatake somewhat, and lastly, is Obito Uchiha, he is a little hard to explain. He is very ambitious, he even shares me dream to become Hokage one day. He is a very nice boy though, I'll introduce you to him sometime, I think you two would get along like a house on fire." Minato explained.

A shock went through me.

Obito Uchiha…

Where had I heard that name before?

Mixed feelings went through me.

Dread, fear, happiness, hope, excitement, and protective feelings over this boy. I felt like I knew him already.

Why…? Who was this boy?

I felt like there was more to it. Like I was missing something bigger…

The confusion all made my head pound.

I held my head gingerly.

"Ayumi…? Are you listening Ayumi?" Minato's voice broke through my thoughts.

"Huh?" I asked, looking back up and lowering my hands.

"You seemed to blank out. Are you feeling ok?" Minato asked worriedly.

Kushina was gauging my reaction.

"No, I'm fine. I just remembered something about my training is all." I laughed it off.

Minato nodded, satisfied, but Kushina gave me a knowing look. I could tell she wanted to talk to me later.

Kushina put down our bowls in front of us and sat down next to Minato. After a quick thanking of the food, we dug in.

"This is really good Kushina! I love your cooking." Minato rejoiced.

Kushina blushed and thanked him. I smirked.

Things were looking good for those two.

Later that night, after Minato had left, Kushina came into my room to check if I was awake.

"Ayumi? Are you still up honey?" Kushina said quietly from the door.

I nodded and sat up gently. My head was still a little sore.

Kushina walked further into my small room and sat down on the bed.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" She asked.

I quickly shook my head, which was a bad idea.

I winced in pain.

Kushina frowned.

"Don't bother lying to me, young lady." She warned.

I was quiet.

What was I supposed to say then? Even I don't know what that was all about.

Kushina motioned for me to speak. I sighed softly.

"Um. Well. I don't really know what happened… I just had some very confusing emotions and, I'm not sure, but like, images came into my head when Minato was talking about his team… I felt like I was missing something. Something important. And it hurt my head trying to think about it…" I admitted to Kushina.

Kushina looked at me with concern.

"What kind of images?" She hesitantly asked.

I frowned and tried to remember.

"A boy… I saw a boy. I think it was Minato's student Obito Uchiha… But the images didn't make sense. I don't know it hurts my head to think about it. I don't know what it all means, and it's scaring me." I whimpered softly.

Kushina pulled me into a tight hug.

"It's okay. You don't have to think about it anymore. I'm sure everything will figure itself out." Kushina whispered into my hair.

We stayed like that for a while before Kushina pulled back with a soft smile.

"Come on, you should get some sleep, tomorrow is another bug day full of training, and you're going to meet Kakashi right? You'll need all the energy you can get meeting that boy. You will know what I'm talking about tomorrow." Kushina said getting up and tucking me in bed.

When she turned to leave the room, I gently pulled on her dress. I looked up at her.

"I love you." I said quietly.

Kushina smiled and kissed me on the nose.

"I love you too Ayumi. Try to get some sleep now." She whispered before leaving the room and closing the door with a soft click.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Wow, okay, first let me say how sorry I am that this chapter is a few days late! Some family emergency stuff came up suddenly and yeah! So again, sorry for being so late D:**

**Anyway, so did anyone hear about the new and final Naruto movie in production? I'm so excited! :D**

**So yep. Here is the next chapter! When I was writing this chapter, it went in a completely different way than I thought it would, so oops, but it was fun. I personally don't like this chapter as much as some of my other ones, but it does have Kakashi! Yay.**

**Now, without further ado, here is chapter seven!**

**Have a good week guys! Until next time xox**

**R&R.**

[Chapter Seven]

That night I had no sleep, as those images of the boy, Obito Uchiha continued to keep my mind awake. Not to mention the huge headache I had just from trying to remember that important thing.

So I wasn't in a very good mood in the morning. Actually, I was in a very foul mood.

Not to my surprise, Minato was the one to come wake me up, poor bastard.

"Ayumi-chan? Are you awake yet? Kushina said it was time to get up." Minato said, going over to the curtains to open them up.

The sunlight pierced my eyes and made my head pound again.

"Go away." I mumbled incoherently.

Minato moved closer to my bed.

"Ayumi-chan? What was that?" He asked.

I growled.

"Go away." I mumbled the warning.

Minato heard me this time and chuckled.

"Come on sleepy head, it's time to get up now, or you will miss breakfast." He said.

"Don't want too." I muttered.

"Why is that? I thought you were excited about today." Minato continued.

He came forward and sat on the edge of my bed, and tried to pry the blanket off of me.

I, on the other hand, was having none of this.

Before Minato even had time to blink, I had grabbed one of my pillows and smashed it against his head, causing him to fall backward, and off of my bed.

Minato sat on the floor, looking shocked for a moment.

"Okay, I understand, I'll leave you alone now…" Minato mumbled, picked himself up, and left the room.

Just as Minato left, in the corridor, I heard Kushina approach.

"What happened to you? And why isn't Ayumi up yet? She needs to have a shower and get ready before she has breakfast." Kushina asked.

Minato chuckled nervously.

"Well, you see, Ayumi-chan doesn't seem to be in a good mood right now, and didn't want to be woken up, so she hit me with a pillow and I fell onto the floor… I think we should leave her alone" Minato explained.

Kushina huffed.

"Well that's just too bad for Ayumi." Kushina said and burst into my bedroom.

I hissed and buried myself under the blankets.

"Ayumi, we can do this the hard way, or the easy way… I'm not in the mood for one of your morning episodes." Kushina warned.

"I choose neither." I called from my little burrow.

Kushina sighed.

"You asked for it." Was all that she said…

Suddenly the blanket was ripped off of me.

I hissed at the cold.

Fine. If Kushina wanted to play dirty, so would I.

I crawled to the corner of my bed and curled up under my pillows.

Kushina huffed in frustration; she came closer and tried to take one from me. I grabbed it and held tightly.

"Let go of the pillow Ayumi! Get up out of bed and get yourself into that shower right now young lady!" Kushina fumed.

"No!" I yelled back.

Kushina growled and pulled the pillow from me, I held onto it until Kushina made a move to grab me.

I screeched and flung myself out of the bed and scrambled under it.

Hell no. I was staying here until Kushina left me alone.

"Why are you being so difficult today, of all days?! I thought you wanted to meet Kakashi? Now get out from under the bed! You aren't a baby!" Kushina yelled.

"Yes I am!" I yelled childishly.

Kushina crouched down and glared at me from my spot under the bed.

"Out. Now." She hissed.

I shook my head.

"Right. That is it. You are coming out from under there, going to have a shower, eat the delicious breakfast I made for you, go meet Kakashi and train with Jiraiya, and to top it off, you will be confined to your room in between training sessions until further notice!" Kushina huffed.

"Ha! I have no friends anyway so it doesn't matter!" I cackled.

Kushina narrowed her eyes at me, and then grinned.

Suddenly she lunged forward and grabbed one of my legs.

"No! Let go of me! I don't want too! I want to sleep god damn it!" I screamed.

I held onto the bed leg for dear life.

Kushina and I continued our screaming match and struggle with each other for another few minutes before Kushina got really pissed off at me, grabbed me, whacked me over the head, and dumped me into the shower, fully clothed, and turned on the freezing water.

I didn't protest after that… Kushina forcefully dressed me and kicked me out of the house, chucking me a sandwich wrapped in plastic on the way out.

"Have that for lunch, I suddenly feel like having lunch without you!" Kushina yelled and slammed the door.

Stupid.

I seriously considered just ditching training and Kakashi so go find somewhere nice to sleep, but I feared Kushina would somehow find out…

So I made my way to our training grounds, in a very bad mood, might I add.

When I did arrive at the training grounds, Sakumo-sensei and Jiraiya-sensei were already there, waiting.

Jiraiya-sensei was about to say something before I held up my hand.

"No talking. Not in the mood." I groaned before climbing into a nearby tree and lying down on a branch.

"Are you feeling okay Ayumi?" Sakumo-sensei asked hesitantly.

"Shh." I mumbled.

He sweat dropped.

Jiraiya-sensei laughed loudly.

"Looks like someone didn't get enough sleep last night!" He boomed.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

All of a sudden I whipped out a kunai and threw it at his head. Unfortunately he ducked.

He laughed nervously.

"Okay, I get it… We can start training later then." He muttered.

I nodded my approval.

Just then, another person entered the training grounds.

"Kakashi! You made it!" Sakumo-sensei crowed happily.

"Of course. You wanted to show me something Father?" The person I assumed was Kakashi asked.

I peeked out from my spot in the tree and got a good look at the boy.

And I recognized him.

"You! You are Kakashi Hatake?! Oh god, kill me now!" I yelled angrily.

It seems the infamous Kakashi was the same boy who mistook me for an Uchiha and teased me about the crying about my parent's death.

The boy looked up at me.

"Oh. If it isn't the little Uchiha Princess? Nice to see you aren't crying this time." He smirked.

I growled.

"It's Ayumi Uzumaki actually! Uzumaki damn it! And excuse me for crying over my parent's death, you insensitive bastard!" I growled.

"How can you have a Sharingan if you are an Uzumaki? Are you clan confused little girl?" He mocked.

I was about to say something back before Sakumo-sensei cut in with a nervous chuckle.

"Kakashi, this is Ayumi Uzumaki, she is the person I wanted to introduce to you… Though it seems you two have gotten off on the wrong foot… Ayumi-chan isn't in a good mood this morning, but you also could show some courtesy Kakashi." Sensei chided lightly.

"How can she have a Sharingan then?" Kakashi asked.

"Because I am the ultimate shinobi and you aren't!" I yelled childishly.

"Really? Ultimate shinobi…? You haven't even started proper training yet." Jiraiya-sensei spoke up for the first time.

"Shut up you pervert! I'll tell Minato you watched Kushina and Mikoto in the bath house!" I threatened.

Jiraiya-sensei looked shocked, but kept his mouth shut. "Um, yes well. Ayumi-chan is half Uzumaki, half Uchiha, causing her to have had the potential to awaken the Sharingan, which she has done so." Sakumo-sensei explained to Kakashi, who was watching me with mild disdain.

"I see then. Why are you and Jiraiya-sama specially training her?" Kakashi questioned his father.

At this point I tuned out.

I was so damn tired and pissed off.

"-umi? Ayumi!" Someone yelled.

"What?" I huffed.

"Were you listening to Sakumo?" Jiraiya-sensei questioned.

"I might have been…" I said.

Jiraiya-sensei huffed in announce.

"Okay Ayumi, it's clear you don't want to be here, and we have better things to do than waste our time with a shitty brat. Go home and get some sleep or something. Don't bother coming to training sessions if you are going to waste our time again." He said harshly.

There was a pause.

"I somewhat agree Ayumi-chan. We don't want a repeat of this. I'll tell you one thing before you leave. Kakashi will train with you on his days off as well; training with someone around your age will probably be beneficial. Now go get some rest. I have a mission next week, so I won't see you for the week, but Jiraiya-sama will be here on the weekend." Sakumo-sensei said.

I pouted.

"Fine. I'm leaving. I apologise for the inconvenience." I said before I left the area and went in search for somewhere to sleep.

I ended up finding myself on a particular grassy hill with a nice big tree on the very top, just on the outskirts of Konoha. It actually had a pretty good view of the Hokage Monument. It was nice.

I saw down at the base of the tree and pulled off my hooded cloak. I bunched it up into a ball and used it as a pillow as I lied down and leaned against the tree. It was a little uncomfortable, so I curled up into a ball, lying flat next to the tree. The grass was soft and much better to sleep on.

I sighed happily and fell asleep after a few minutes of me just watching the clouds.

When I awoke again, I noticed the sun had long gone down, and despite it being night, I was warm.

I groggily sat up and a blanket fell off of me and I noticed I had my head in someone else's lap…

Huh? When did that get there…? And who the hell was I lying on?!

"Are you awake now, Ayumi-chan?" Someone asked.

I looked over my shoulder and saw Minato leaning against the tree, with me in his lap and with an amused smile on his face. When did he even get there?

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

Minato chuckled.

"Well, I bumped into Jiraiya-sensei earlier this afternoon, and he said you were in a very bad mood this morning, so he cancelled training. He asked me to come find you because he was worried about you." He explained.

I nodded.

"So how long have you been here for?" I asked around a yawn.

Minato shrugged.

"A few hours. I found you here asleep, but you seemed to be having a very restless sleep, so I decided to stay until you woke up so I could take you home to Kushina." Minato told me.

I nodded slowly.

"Are you ready to go home now? I'm sure Kushina is waiting for us with dinner ready." Minato smiled.

I nodded and gathered my cloak up and put it back on.

Minato moved closer to me and held out his hand.

"Close your eyes. This might be a little disorientating." Minato chuckled.

Before I even had time to question him, he gently grabbed my hand a pulled me close to him. I squeezed my eyes shut and suddenly I felt really dizzy, like I was going to pass out. It only lasted for a second though, before I felt fine.

"You can open your eyes now Ayumi-chan." Minato said with amusement.

I cracked an eye open and looked around. We were in the living room of my apartment!

"Whoa! How did you do that?" I asked, looking up at the proud looking blonde.

"I used my Hiraishin jutsu! It's a space and time jutsu that allows me to move from places I have marked, instantly." He explained.

"That is so cool!" I exclaimed.

Minato chuckled.

"Maybe I might teach it to you someday." He said ominously.

I grinned.

We made our way into the kitchen, where Kushina had just placed our food on the table. We were having stir fry tonight!

"Ah, I thought I heard you two come in." Kushina greeted us happily.

"We must have good timing." Minato said, scratching the back of his neck with a small chuckle.

I grinned happily and quickly climbed up into my chair. I was still only small, so the chairs were still hard to get up too.

During dinner, we didn't bring up my earlier behaviour, which I was happy about. My behaviour was horrible, and I didn't have the right to act so badly.

After dinner was finished, we all curled up on the sofa and watched a movie. Kushina picked. I wasn't really paying attention though, because I was too busy being happy snuggled up in between Minato and Kushina.

As to why those two still aren't dating…? Who knew?

As per usual, Minato left around nine o'clock, my bedtime. When Minato was leaving, I gave him my normal hug and kiss on the cheek. I also apologised for hitting him with a pillow this morning. He chuckled and waved it off. I also decided it would be fun to add in a little extra.

"Kushina really likes you, you know? You should ask her on a date this weekend. It's going to happen sooner or later." I whispered in his ear when I hugged him.

He blushed deeply and made a hasty retreat after that.

After Minato left, Kushina went back into the kitchen to clean up and put everything away. I decided to follow after her and watch.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for bed Ayumi?" Kushina asked as she manoeuvred about the kitchen.

"Yes… But I want to spend some more time with you!" I announced.

Kushina chuckled.

"I see. Well, how about tomorrow you and I spend the day together? I don't have any missions and you have a week off right?" She suggested.

I grinned.

"That sounds awesome!" I cheered.

"Yes, yes. Now go get ready for bed now." Kushina ordered.

I nodded and hopped of my chair and went and got ready for bed.

Once I was freshened up, changed, and ready for bed, Kushina entered my room to tuck me in.

"You can have a sleep in tomorrow morning okay? But when I come to wake you up, you get up, understand?" Kushina told me.

I nodded quickly.

"Good girl. Goodnight then Ayumi, I love you." Kushina said with a smile and kissed me on the forehead.

"Love you too." I said quietly.

Kushina turned off the light and left the room.

I settled down and went to sleep.

Later during the night, I woke up with a start. I noticed I had tears running down my face, and I didn't understand. I couldn't remember my dream, but it had something to do with Minato and Kushina, that I knew.

I had the sudden urge to see Kushina. Whipping my tears, I climbed out of bed and quietly padded into Kushina's room.

It was dark and silent. I assumed Kushina was asleep. I quickly crawled onto the bed and snuggled up tightly to her, to my surprise, her arms wrapped around me tightly.

"What's wrong Ayumi? Why have you been crying?" She whispered.

"I don't know… I woke up feeling very sad about you and Minato so I came in here…" I whispered back.

Kushina was quiet.

"I see. Well, Minato and I are fine okay? I'm here, it's okay. You just go to sleep okay? I won't leave you." She answered finally.

I nodded and buried my face into her long soft hair. I felt better, comforted.

It didn't take me long to fall asleep after that. The rest of the night was peaceful.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Hey guys! So another Wednesday, another Naruto chapter and fanfic update!**

**Now this chapter is a little better than the last, and less hectic! I always have fun google searching clothes, especially kimono's for my OC's to wear xD I'm just not great at explaining them in writing though.**

**Okay, so Obito will be entering the scene soon! Get excited ^.^**

**So yup, as always, enjoy the update!**

**R&R**

[Chapter Eight]

The next morning, as Kushina promised, I was allowed a sleep in, much to my delight. When I climbed out of Kushina's bed, I left her room and went in search of her. As normal, she was in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

"Good morning Ayumi! Did you have a nice sleep in?" Kushina chirped when I entered the kitchen.

I smiled and nodded.

"Breakfast will be ready soon, I've decided on ramen! You go get ready for today, and then we'll eat. Minato isn't coming over this morning, so we don't have to wait." Kushina cheered.

Was ramen really such a good thing for breakfast? I shrugged to myself. Oh well, ramen was always a thing not to pass up.

Because I wasn't training today, after my shower, I wore normal clothes. I found Kushina had put out the clothes she wanted me to wear today.

Kushina made it her mission to make sure I was elegant, but cute, with my clothing style, so I wasn't really surprised when I found one of my kimonos lying on my bed. I had quite a few kimonos, dresses and skirts. I didn't own a lot of pants or shorts, mainly ones only for my ninja wear.

The kimono was one of my nicer ones, which I normally only wore when we were going out for special occasions.

It was one of my personal favourites, being a light lavender shade with darker shades of purple and lilac flowers twisting up from the bottom of the front, up the sides, up through the back, and twisting back down over the shoulder. There were also flowers lining the long sleeves. The obi was dark blue, with silver flowers.

I put on the undergarments, and my pouch full of senbon, I was still a ninja in training after all, and went out to the kitchen to have breakfast with Kushina. I couldn't put on the kimono by myself, and I also didn't want to chance getting any food on it while I ate.

Kushina was sitting at the table with two bowls of steaming ramen in front of her. When I climbed up onto the chair in front of her, she pushed my bowl over.

"I'm surprised you didn't start without me." I snickered.

Kushina chuckled.

"Well, I was going to, but it's bad manners not to wait for you. You're lucky though, I was about to give in." Kushina answered.

I snickered again. I wasn't surprised.

We ate our breakfast and kept up a light banter throughout.

"Kushina, come help me with my kimono?" I asked after we had finished cleaning away our dishes.

Kushina grinned and picked me up bridal style.

I laughed and yelled at Kushina to put me down. She laughed.

When we entered my room, she dumped me on the bed with a grin.

"Okay, let's get this kimono on you!" She cheered.

I grinned and nodded, standing up and holding my arms out for her to begin.

"Why am I wearing this one anyway?" I asked Kushina as she pulled on the kimono over my shoulders.

"Well, we are going to do some shopping, visit some people, I also want to go see Mikoto, so we have to go to the main house of the Uchiha district, so nice clothing is a must, and don't kill me, but I want to take you to go see the Hokage about a few minor things… And it's always a good thing to be your best while in the company of the opposite sex." Kushina admitted.

"So from the sounds of it, you want to perv on Minato, go talk about it with your best friend and pretty much try to get me a boyfriend… At the age of five, Kushina, five. And to top it off, we are going to see the Hokage for shady reasons." I deadpanned.

Kushina sweat dropped.

"Pfft. No. What are you talking about?" Kushina said awkwardly.

"Whatever, as long as we spend the day together, it's fine." I admitted.

Kushina looked down at me and grinned.

We were just about finished as Kushina was just starting to tie my obi.

"Okay finished! Now, let's do something about your hair. Follow me; I think I can fix it up." Kushina said when she finished tying my obi into a bow.

"What's wrong with me hair?" I asked shocked, I stopped following her and stood awkwardly in the hall.

I thought Kushina liked my hair…?

I still had insecurities about being so different from everyone, and my hair was a big sore spot still.

Kushina noticed my sad tone and turned and came back for me.

"Nothing is wrong with it sweetie! I just meant we should do something special with it. Since it's so long, we can put it up into a really nice style. I love your hair, don't think otherwise okay?" Kushina reassured me.

I nodded hesitantly.

We went into Kushina's room, and she told me to sit on the bed.

I complied and climbed up, while she started looking through draws for something.

A minute later, she came back with the things she needed.

Kushina also climbed onto the bed, to sit behind me. She started brushing my long hair. It was very soothing and I nearly fell asleep before she was finished.

When Kushina had finished brushing my hair, she started gathering it up at the top of my head. She left my fringe down, and pulled the rest up tightly, and formed a big bun. She fluffed it out and used something to keep the bun in shape. After she did that, she tied it and pulled back to look at her work.

"Very good, it's cute! Now it just needs something else…" Kushina said happily.

She climbed off the bed and went in search of that 'something else'.

"Found it! This will be perfect." Kushina crowed happily when she found the object.

She motioned for me to go over to her, instead of going back on the bed, so I carefully slid off the bed, not wanting to wrinkle my kimono, and padded over to Kushina.

She turned me around and placed something in my hair gently. When I looked up at her curiously, I head a soft jingling sound when I moved.

Kushina grinned and lead me over to a mirror.

"Don't you look good? It suits you very well. I received it from my mother when I left Uzushiogakure; I wore it a lot, now you can have it!" Kushina said warmly.

I looked at my reflection and focused on the object Kushina was talking about.

It was a clip, which was about ten centimetres in length, with little dark red flowers covering it. Attached to the clip and coming out from under the flowers, were rows of little silver bells. It was very pretty and it looked very old and traditional.

"It's so pretty… It looks old, what's it made out of?" I asked in awe.

"It's made out of red jade, and it's been in my family for quite some time. Look after it well okay?" Kushina smiled gently.

I nodded, and the bells jingled. I giggled.

"Well, now that you look beautiful, let's start out day, shall we? What do you want to do first?" Kushina asked.

I paused to think.

"I think a walk around Konoha sounds good!" I announced.

"Good idea! I'll just quickly get changed and we can go. Meet me at the door." Kushina said, gently pushing me out of the room.

I smiled as I left the room and went in search of my shoes. Today was going to be a good day, and I felt like I needed to spend as much time with Kushina and Minato as I could. I didn't know why, and to avoid getting another headache, I didn't bother trying to remember why.

When I found my shoes, I slid the on and went to wait for Kushina by the front door. I decided to check my senbon while I was waiting.

Kushina only took five minutes, which was pretty good. When she came out, I stared at her.

She looked so beautiful!

Kushina was also wearing a kimono, but hers was a dark plum with white flowers scattered all over the place, her obi was also white, but with plum flowers. Her hair was tied up into a bun, with her bangs and fringe down. Sitting snug on the side of her bun, was a white flower hair comb.

"Uwaa, you look beautiful Kushina!" I said in awe.

Kushina chuckled, putting on her shoes.

"I don't look nearly as good as you, but thank you. Now, let's start on our walk! Let's go through the outskirts, along the river, and slowly make our way into the centre shopping district. Sound good?" Kushina smiled.

I nodded energetically and Kushina grabbed my hand.

We set off, happily walking through the street, swinging out hands together.

We received a few odd looks from the residents in Konoha, but we also got a lot of compliments and smiles. It was nice.

I used to hear nasty whispers and get cold stares when I walked down the street with my Mother in my old village. Konoha was a lot warmer and nicer.

Kushina got a lot of whistles and cat calls from the men. It was funny though, a few times, just some random men gathering together would stare at Kushina and whistle, but then someone would recognize her for her reputation and tell the others to shut up.

Kushina and I both found it funny.

We easily spent a good few hours, just dawdling through Konoha at our leisure. During our walk, we had run into many shinobi who Kushina knew, and we said hello. Kushina introduced me to all of them, and they were very nice.

After our walk, we found ourselves in the shopping district and Kushina looked down at me and grinned.

"So what do you feel like buying? You'll have your own wage soon, so I'll treat you this one last time okay? I'm sure you will graduate into a genin soon." Kushina told me.

I smiled softly. Kushina was a strange woman. One minute, she could be angry at you, or snarky, sarcastic and otherwise, but the next minute, she is the nicest, most caring person in this world.

I couldn't ask for a better caretaker. Kushina was like my second Mother.

We went into loads of different shops, and bought many different things. Luckily they could be delivered to our apartment, because we certainly couldn't carry it all.

Kushina, being Kushina, bought me more kimonos, which I sweat dropped at. I probably wouldn't wear them all by the time I grew out of them. She also bought me very traditional looking accessories, like fans, clips, head pieces and more… It made me think she was purposely buying them for a set reason…

By the time we had finished shopping, including for Kushina, it was around three o'clock in the afternoon. We were too busy shopping, we forgot about lunch, so I decided we should buy a picnic lunch!

"That is a great idea Ayumi! We can take our lunch and go see Minato training!" Kushina cheered.

"Again, you just want to perv on Minato while he is hot and sweaty training, while hiding somewhere and you want to take our lunch with you?" I deadpanned.

Kushina blushed.

"Um, well, you see, it isn't like that… Hey, you're too young to use language like that describing a boy!" Kushina huffed.

I snickered.

"Says the one who tried to introduce me to young boys around my age so you could hook me up… Besides, genius, remember?" I reminded her.

Kushina didn't deny it.

So off we went, and of course, Kushina knew exactly which training grounds Minato would be training at. I stared in horror when Kushina led me up into the trees and there was, what looked like a little base.

"Please tell me some kids made this, Kushina, please!" I whined.

Kushina chuckled.

"Mikoto and I made this a few years ago, so technically, yes, kids did make it." She answered.

I groaned.

She has been stalking poor Minato with her best friend for who knows how long…

That's it; I'm upping my game as being Minato's wing girl. It was on guys, it was so on.

I chuckled darkly.

So, as we ate our lunch, we perved on Minato while he was training, poor soul.

I decided to start my plan.

"Hey Kushina, when are you going to invite Minato to stay the night with us? I want us all to sleep in the same bed! It would be nice, just like when Mother and Father were around… I miss that." I played the innocent part.

"Wha-!" Kushina spun around to face me, but got tangled in her kimono and started to fall face first out of the tree.

"Uwaa!" Kushina yelped.

I watched quietly, waiting.

And as I thought, Minato suddenly flashed over and caught Kushina in his arms.

"Kushina…?" He said with wide eyes.

Kushina blushed and looked away.

"Um, hello Minato…" She said awkwardly.

I grinned evilly at the unsuspecting couple.

I pulled a senbon out of my pouch hidden under my kimono, and threw it at the back of Minato's head. He quickly ducked forward to dodge it, but ended up smashing his lips into Kushina.

They stared wide eyed at each other for a moment, before Kushina jumped out of Minato's arms and he quickly stepped back. They were red as tomatoes.

I couldn't hold it in.

I roared in laughter.

"Ayumi?! You were here too?" Minato yelled, looking up at my place in the tree.

I nodded, still laughing my ass off. My stomach hurt and I was openly crying.

Minato and Kushina both were staring at me with shocked looks on their faces.

"Ayumi did you…?" Minato asked then trailed off.

I winked at him and nodded.

Kushina huffed in annoyance.

"I guess it can't be helped. Ayumi won't leave us alone otherwise. So, Minato, will you go out with me?" She asked, turning to Minato.

His eyes widened.

"Wha-?"

I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing again.

"What?! What's so funny?!" Kushina yelled.

"You-, you asked him out, but you're the girl! Oh Minato, you poor thing, your girlfriend is more man than you!" I managed to get out in between laughs.

Minato blushed. He didn't even look mad.

After I had stopped laughing and everyone got over their shock, Minato excused himself and disappeared off somewhere.

Kushina and I packed up our half eaten lunch and headed over to the Uchiha district.

"You planned that didn't you?" Kushina asked as we were walking.

I nodded.

"I might have. But seriously, it was going to happen, but you guys were tiptoeing around each other, and it was getting frustrating." I snickered.

Kushina sighed.

"I'm not even really surprised… Or mad…" She admitted.

When we arrived at the Uchiha gate, I recognized a certain grey haired boy leaning against the wall.

"Kakashi…" I muttered as we got closer.

"Do you want to speak with him? I'll wait for you." Kushina asked.

I nodded. I probably should apologise for my behaviour when I met him formally.

We approached the boy, and I bowed.

"Hello Kakashi." I said as I bowed.

Kakashi lazily looked me up and down.  
"Little Uzumaki Princess, what brings you to the Uchiha district, I thought you said you weren't an Uchiha?" Ha asked.

I withheld my glare.

"Good afternoon Kakashi. Ayumi and I are here to see my friend actually." Kushina interrupted.

"Kushina-san. I see then." Kakashi said in greeting to her.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked.

"I'm waiting for a team mate. We have a solo mission today, but he is late." Kakashi replied.

I nodded.

We were silent for a moment.

"Look, I apologize for my behaviour yesterday, I hadn't had any sleep and I had a headache, I know that's not much of an excuse, but that's all I have. I know we got off on the wrong foot, so how about we try again?" I apologised with another bow.

I noticed Kushina was looking at me with pride.

"Whatever then." Kakashi agreed.

"Well then. Um, hello, I am Ayumi Uzumaki, nice to meet you!" I chirped, holding out my hand.

Kakashi took my hand and shook it once.

"Kakashi Hatake." That was all he said.

I shrugged and went with it.

"We will be training together in the future; I hope we can work well together." I said with a smile.

Kakashi's mouth seemed to twitch. Closest I've seen him smile… But I had only seen the boy twice anyway.

"Come on then Ayumi, let's go see Mikoto." Kushina piped up.

I nodded.

"I'll see you around then, Hatake." I told the boy.

He nodded.

"See you Uzumaki." He answered.

Kushina and I turned and went inside the gates. As we were passing through, a boy ran past us, going at full speed.

I suddenly stopped walking and Kushina stoped and looked at me worried.

That boy…

"Sorry I'm late Kakashi, I had to help an old lady put out her washing! Let's go get Rin okay?" The boy yelled.

I froze.

That voice… Who was it? Obito Uchiha…?

When I tried to think, pain exploded in my head. I cringed, and Kushina noticed.

"Ayumi? Are you okay? What's wrong?" She asked coming and crouching down to look at me.

"It happened again… The images and the headache…" I whispered.

Kushina's eyes widened slightly before she picked me up and gave me a piggy back.

"You can have a rest at Mikoto's house okay? I'm sure she will be happy to let you have a rest while we talk." Kushina told me.

I nodded and rested my cheek on her head.

When we finally did arrive at the Uchiha main house, Mikoto herself greeted us.

"Kushina! Oh, and Ayumi! Welcome, come in, I'll put on some tea." Mikoto chirped happily and I cringed at the loud noise.

"Mikoto, can Ayumi have a rest in one of the spare rooms or something? A sudden headache came on and she doesn't feel well." Kushina asked as we followed Mikoto.

"Oh! Yes, of course, just go down the hall, the fourth room on the left is empty right now; I'll go get a futon." Mikoto said quickly.

"Thank you." I mumbled quietly.

Mikoto smiled softly at me before she turned and disappeared inside the huge house.

"Come on the Ayumi, let's go find that room." Kushina murmured.

I nodded and held on tighter.

Kushina easily found the room and we went in. Kushina gently pried me off of her back and onto the ground again.

Kushina kneeled beside me and hugged me.

"What are we going to do about this Ayumi? This was one of the reasons I was going to take you to see the Hokage, I think this needs to be looked at by a Yamanaka." Kushina sighed.

"Who are the Yamanaka?" I asked.

"Well, they are a clan who have special jutsu that deal with the mind. Some can enter your mind and control you, while others can unlock memories, or try to repair damaged ones." Kushina explained.

I nodded.

"I'm scared, but these images and headaches scare me more." I said in my way of telling Kushina I will go along with her.

She smiled softly squeezed me tighter for a moment before letting go.

Mikoto came in at that moment with a futon. She quickly set it up, wished me a good rest and left. Kushina tucked me in, kissed me on the forehead, turned off the light and followed after Mikoto.

I sighed and curled up. Stupid headaches.

I slowly fell asleep, listening to Kushina and Mikoto's light chatter not too far away.


	10. Chapter Nine

**Hey guys! Another week, another update. ^.^**

**I finally did some more writing this week, although not much, but it's something to start with right?**

**But. I do have some bad news for you all. After this update, I've decided to go on a short two week break from updating, just to try and catch up with my pre-written chapters. I'm fast running out. I think this way is better, because when I do run out of pre-written chapters, then who knows when I will be updating, and I like keeping to a one week schedule for you guys, although, depending on what these next two weeks are like, I might change it to a fortnightly update, but we will see.**

**Now that's over, let's continue! Anyone read the newest Naruto chapter today? Ah, it was so good!**

**And insert Obito Uchiha! Woo! Although it's another brief appearance, he will be here permanently for a good while! About time! **

**Ah! Before I forget. Thank you to my lovely guest reviewers! It means a lot to me, seriously. It kind of sucks that I can't personally thank you in a PM, but here you go!**

**Now, read and enjoy people! I'll see you again in a few weeks. ^.^**

**R&R**

[Chapter Nine]

I woke up not long after I had fallen asleep. My head was feeling better, but there was still a dull ache. I sighed softly. This was so troublesome.

Getting out of the futon, I quickly and quietly folded up the futon and placed it against the wall. Then I left the room and followed the sound of Kushina and Mikoto talking.

They weren't hard to find luckily. They were sitting together in a little room that looked out into the traditional garden. The room itself looked like it was used for meditation.

I padded in and sat down on a cushion next to Kushina.

"Did you have a nice sleep? You only slept for an hour." Kushina asked, while Mikoto smiled gently at me.

I nodded.

"Thank you for allowing me to use one of your rooms." I said to Mikoto, bowing.

She laughed gently.

"No need to thank me. It was quite alright." She said.

I smiled at her.

Kushina and Mikoto continued to talk for a little while before Mikoto suddenly changed the topic.

"Oh! Kushina, didn't you say you wanted to see the Hokage today? It's starting to get late…" She exclaimed.

Kushina gasped.

"You're right! I completely forgot about that." Kushina laughed.

I was wondering if Kushina had actually forgotten…

Kushina stood up, with me following her moves.

"Well, I guess we had better go then." Kushina said rather down.

Mikoto stood up also and moved to hug Kushina.

"Yes, but I'll see you around, I'm sure. My house is always open to you." She smiled.

Kushina grinned and hugged Mikoto back. When they pulled apart, Mikoto crouched down to my level.

"It was nice seeing you today Ayumi. I hope you feel better soon and come along with Kushina next time. My house is open to you anytime as well." She said kindly, patting my head.

I bowed.

"Thank you again." I said.

She simply smiled and Kushina and I left the Uchiha compound.

"So we'll make our visit to the Hokage, then let's buy take out, grab a few movie then head home okay?" Kushina said.

I nodded. Sounded good to me.

Kushina and I walked through Konoha at a pace a little faster than our previous walk, only because we were getting short on time.

When we arrived at Hokage Tower, we stated our reason for seeing Hokage-sama and luckily we were sent straight in.

"Ah, Kushina, Ayumi, what brings you here so late in the afternoon?" Hokage-sama said with a polite smile.

Kushina and I bowed.

"Well, I would like to ask for a few simple things regarding Ayumi, if that's possible?" Kushina spoke.

Hokage-sama nodded and motioned for Kushina to continue. In the meantime, I had no idea what Kushina was going to ask.

"I have been overlooking Ayumi's training with Jiraiya-sensei and Sakumo-sensei and what I have seen personally, I think Ayumi should be trained in the kunoichi arts. I believe it would be most beneficial to her if she attends the academy's basic specialist kunoichi classes and then moves on and trains under an apprentice." Kushina said.

Wait. What? Kushina had been watching me train this whole time and now she wants me to attend the academy? Does this mean I'm not progressing to a good standard…?

Hokage-sama was silent, but nodded for Kushina to continue.

"Ayumi has shown the basic traits needed for special kunoichi training… Grace, manners, flexibility, intelligence and beauty. We don't have many kunoichi who are specially trained in the arts and their kenjutsu style anymore, and I believe Ayumi would be a perfect candidate." Kushina finished.

Hokage-sama thought about it.

"I agree with you Kushina, but what about Ayumi's other training? We cannot abandon it, as Ayumi is too important to Konoha." He reasoned.

Kushina forced a small smile.

"She will continue, I think one week on and one week off would be the best measure. Jiraiya and Sakumo will train her one week, the next she attends kunoichi classes at the Academy, and the next week is strictly for her Sharingan training with Kagami-sama. During the afternoons, providing we both don't have missions, Ayumi will either train with me in fuinjutsu, or with Kakashi Hatake." Kushina reasoned back.

Kushina sure had this all planned out huh?

The old man sighed and took a puff from his pipe.

"Okay Kushina, I agree, but she must complete the basic kunoichi training by this time next year, then she will be trained specially at the Okiya with our only remaining kunoichi who was specially trained by the Geisha." He agreed.

Kushina grinned slyly. She was up to something.

"Thank you Hokage-sama. Now may I ask you permission for one more thing?" Kushina bowed.

He nodded.

"I am troubled by some recent events occurring with Ayumi. On two occasions Ayumi has come down with a migraine and the first time, she spaced out. I questioned her and she explained to me that she saw images and had intense feelings, but she didn't know what exactly is all was. She feels she can't remember something important, and I have a feeling that this problem needs to be looked into by a Yamanaka. If Ayumi has damaged memories, I fear she might go insane, I have seen this before with retired shinobi." Kushina explained.

I cringed.

Hokage-sama's eyes widened slightly before he turned to me.

"Is what Kushina speaks of true, Ayumi-chan?" He asked me seriously.

I nodded.

He hummed.

"We cannot risk losing Ayumi, and this news is troubling… Okay, I will have a Yamanaka take a look into her memories, to see if there is anything wrong." He said finally.

Kushina sighed in relief.

"I hope you get what you were looking for out of all that Kushina" Hokage-sama said with a smirk.

Oh? So he knew Kushina was up to something too?

"Oh I think I did. Thank you." Kushina said with a wink.

After we both bowed, we turned and left.

So we headed out to buy some take out, grab a few movies and head home. Kushina was in a good mood, so she let me decide what I wanted for dinner. I picked a traditional curry with rice.

I let Kushina pick the movies. She picked a couple of horror movies, which I was fine with.

"So, why do you want me to start specialist kunoichi training?" I asked Kushina.

She grinned slyly.

"When I said I was going to protect you from this war when we first met, I meant it. You see, kunoichi training, takes more time to, how should I say, 'graduate' I guess. First, you start in the Academy with basic lessons all female attend, after that, if you have high enough grades, and so choose, you stay in the Academy for an extra three years, furthering your lessons. Once you finish those, again, if you choose and do well enough, you train in Konoha's Okiya with the kunoichi who are trained from birth by Geisha, and kenjutsu masters. There, you study for a year, learning to perfect and master the arts of dance, seduction, infiltration, language, music and special kenjutsu." Kushina explained as we walked home.

I nodded.

"So, as you can see, you won't be able to go out to war until you have finished your training! And when you do finished… You won't be going out into the front lines; you will be a spy, an infiltrator, acting as a geisha. There is less risk involved when you are specially trained. And you, Ayumi, I believe will be the best specialist kunoichi this generation will see." Kushina grinned.

"Oh! I get it now… But what if I can't become a 'specialist kunoichi'? What then?" I asked.

Kushina paused.

"I truly believe you can do it, but with your training with Kakashi, Sakumo-san and Jiraiya, you will still be one hell of a shinobi in the future." Kushina smiled.

I simply nodded. I hoped for everyone's sake, Kushina was right…

Funnily enough, the next day was Orientation day at the Academy for new students, so Kushina decided it would be the perfect day to enrol me. I was excited, because if I was going to the academy, I would meet new people and make friends right?

So again, I was dressed in a nice kimono, clan children had to keep up appearances, even if the Uzumaki weren't apart of the four noble clans in Konoha… Kushina was just clothed in her normal jonin wear.

We walked to the Academy and there were a lot of other children. Most of them looked older than me by a few years.

Kushina and I received a few stares, nothing major, but we did stand a little away from all the other kids.

After little information pamphlets were given out by the Academy teachers, we were given a tour of the place. Kushina remarked how the Academy hadn't changed at all since she had been there when she was younger.

Once the tour was done, we were all split into class groups. Because I wasn't in normal classes, Kushina and I spent the rest of the day with the kunoichi lessons teacher. She was a nice enough Chuunin woman, who apparently started at the Academy when Kushina was in her final year, so she referred to Kushina as her sempai.

She debriefed us on how the lessons were going to run and things like that. When we were finished talking, we did a little flower arranging workshop, in preparation for the beginning of classes next week.

All in all, I had fun, and I think secretly, Kushina was having fun reliving her Academy days.

Three weeks had passed, which was the end of my first rotation in training. During my training with Jiraiya-sensei and Sakumo-sensei, I had finally mastered basic chakra control and my concentration had improved dramatically with my new determination to be the best Specialist Kunoichi I could be.

Both my Sensei's were shocked at my sudden improvement. I just simply stated that I wanted to be the best I could be, so I trained like crazy.

My awareness for my surroundings had gotten to the stage that Sakumo-sensei decided to up my training by adding a blindfold into the mix. I had to run my target course with the blind fold on until I got perfect aim every time. When I could successfully do that, which we predict in another three weeks or so, then I would have both my Sensei's throw kunai and shiruken at me from different positions, constantly moving around.

This training also helped my chakra control, because I had to use my chakra to be able to see objects.

The next week was my kunoichi classes at the Academy. After only the first two days, I was put into the advanced class with the older girls. They didn't seem to like the class very much, why I, on the other hand, loved it. I overheard one of the clan kids; I think she was a Yamanaka, saying the only reason most of the girls had to attend the class was because their parents forced them. I felt sorry for our Sensei, who had to put up with all the complaints.

All in all, I was advancing in the class, much to Kushina's delight.

And finally, the last week was for Sharingan training with Kagami-sensei. I was still just getting used to knowing when I was in a minor genjutsu, and having my Sharingan activated for longer periods of time. I wasn't happy with the lack of progress, but Kagami-sensei reassured me that I was doing very well for one who was not full Uchiha and had no preparation training at all. His words made me feel a little better.

In between all of that, I had begun training with Kakashi in the afternoons. Since my training regime was in full swing and I wasn't at home much, Kushina had been called away on missions, so that left me with Kakashi, who for some reason didn't have a lot of missions at the moment.

Because I hadn't started taijutsu or kenjutsu yet, Kakashi and I didn't have a lot of options left, so we worked on my stamina, weight training, running laps, and things like that.

Come to think of it, I would say that was probably the hardest part in my training so far, because Kakashi pushed me to be at his level, or be left behind, and I struggled to keep up, but somehow I managed to do it, and boy did it tire me out.

After the first few nights of Kushina coming home late, I tried to stay up to greet her, but I was just so tired I ended up falling asleep at the kitchen table. I always woke up in the morning in my own bed, thanks to Kushina. After that, I didn't bother waiting, I just had a light dinner and went to bed. Sometimes Minato would come over to check on me for Kushina, and we had dinner together, but I excused myself early so I could sleep.

The night after Minato checked up on me, Kakashi seemed to lighten up with the training slightly.

"Why are you going to easy on my today?" I questioned the boy.

"There really isn't a reason." He answered while looking away.

I stared at him for a moment and sighed.

Minato was his sensei after all…

"Minato said something to you, didn't he?" I sighed.

Kakashi was quite for a moment.

"Yes, he did. He is worried you are going to hurt yourself with so much training. He asked me to go easy on you for a few days." Kakashi answered truthfully.

That was one thing I did like about Kakashi, he didn't bother lying to me.

"Look, I'm fine, I can take this. If I can't do this much, how can I become the kunoichi I want to be?" I said.

Kakashi looked at me sternly.

"I agree with Minato-sensei. You look like you haven't been getting enough sleep and it's slowing you down." Kakashi warned.

"Fine, fine. We will take it slow for the next few days, and then go back to normal okay?" I said in defeat.

Kakashi smirked.

Arguing with Kakashi was pointless. He always won, and got what he wanted.

Over the past few weeks that I had been training with Kakashi, we had somehow fallen into a weird sort of friendship. A more accurate statement would be is, we acknowledge each other's skill, in therefore, respect each other. We shared training tips and helped each other out in our own different ways. Kakashi was still cold and harsh at times, but he was softening up, even if just a little.

Sure, I wasn't nearly as good at anything Kakashi was able to accomplish, but he respected and acknowledged that I was good for someone who had minimal to no training until now, unlike him, Kakashi had been trained by Sakumo-sensei pretty much since he was born.

Kakashi actually wasn't really as bad as others make him out to be…

The next week, Kushina and Minato both were going on an important mission together, Minato leaving his team behind.

I insisted I could look after myself, but they were having none of that. And so, they decided, without my consent, that because I was training with Sakumo-sensei and Jiraiya-sensei that week, I was going to stay with the Hatake family.

In the end, I went along with it and didn't really mind it. I was staying with my awesome Sensei, and his son, who happened to be my only friend, well, sort of friend.

Sakumo-sensei was happy to let me stay with them, but I think it ruffled a few feathers with Kakashi, but I wasn't sure why.

Today was the third day staying with the Hatake family, and I was getting tired of Kakashi's attitude with me.

"What's your problem with me now Hatake?" I called out to Kakashi, who was running in front of me around Konoha.

He was going faster than normal, and I wasn't keeping up well.

Kakashi ignored me.

I grumbled, but I sped up my pace to catch up, which was hard because Kakashi had changed the level of weights I was wearing.

When I had caught up, Kakashi's eyes narrowed at me for a moment before he increased his speed again.

In turn, I narrowed my eyes at him and sped up too. He tried to go ahead of me again, but I growled and grabbed him roughly by the collar and pulled him to a stop.

He glared at me and made a move to break my grasp.

"Don't try it." I warned.

He held still and I slowly let go of him and crossed my arms and looked up at him angrily.

"Why are you ignoring me? What did I do to you?" I asked.

He was silent.

I sighed.

"Look, can't you just tell me what's wrong? You know you are my only friend, and I would rather not lose you because you don't want to tell me what's wrong." I huffed.

"You should be able to figure it out. You are a genius after, aren't you?" Kakashi spat, hinting at the use of genius.

I frowned and paused, and then it hit me. Sakumo-sensei called me a genius…

So was this about him then…?

Could it be Kakashi is jealous of the attention I had been receiving staying in the Hatake house?

"Kakashi… Are you jealous that Sakumo-sensei is paying me more attention than you?" I asked quietly.

Kakashi stiffened and I took that as a yes. Admittedly, I did feel a little guilty, but I just assumed Sensei was just trying to be a good host, and besides, he always brought my praises back to Kakashi somehow. Like, Ayumi, you are getting good, soon you might be as good as Kakashi! Things like that…

"I'm sorry… I didn't mean to make you feel threatened… I'll go stay with Mikoto-san if you want." I mumbled.

Now Kakashi sighed.

"No, you don't need to do that. Look, I'm sorry too, for being mean to you. It's just I've never had someone stay in our house with Father and I, so I didn't know what to do…" Kakashi admitted stubbornly.

I smiled slightly. He was cute when he was looking guilty.

I heard around that Kakashi Hatake never apologizes to anyone, unless he highly regards them.

Grinning, I leaned forward and hugged the boy, who was stunned by my actions and stiffened up.

"You're a great friend Kakashi! Let's stay friends forever, okay?" I giggled.

Kakashi sighed at my chipper tone.

"Whatever. Let's just get back to training okay?" Kakashi muttered.

I nodded and we started running again, but at a much nicer pace.

By the time we had finished training, it was late afternoon and I was starving. I happily pulled a reluctant Hatake with me to Ichiraku Ramen, where I proceeded to buy two bowls of ramen for myself. Kakashi just ordered a small bowl.

I was about half way through my first bowl when someone else slid into the seat next to me.

"Kakashi?!" The person yelled with annoyed tone.

I looked up curiously at the boy, and then proceeded to be swamped with fast flickering images and an explosion of pain, and then I fell forward and passed out… In my bowl of ramen…

I heard yelling and I sighed. Here we go again, I thought before I couldn't see nor hear anything anymore.


	11. Chapter Ten

**I'm back guys! Wow, who knew two week were such a long time? D: So, I got very little writing done, sadly, because I have run out of muse for this story. I have an idea of lots of different scenes for future Ayumi, but not while she is young. Have any ideas guys? I was thinking of finishing up this part of the story I'm on and then do a time skip of a few years, but I also don't want to miss character development. Ughh. xD**

**Anyway, so any help, ideas, suggestions, whatever, will be much appreciated. Oh! And what kind of fighting style, and or weapons you think Ayumi should work with, her major is going to be in kenjutsu with a chakra sword, it will kind of work a little like the Hyuga gentle fist.**

**So onto this chapter! Obito is here to stay guys! Yay! Obito is so adorable.**

**By the way guys, we reached over 1000 visitors and 3000 views! That's crazy. Such a huge number of people. I am so thankful that people like my story. Love you guys.**

**And finally, sorry for such a long authors's note.. Ehe, I get carried away. So now, without further ado, here is chapter 10! Hope you enjoy.**

* * *

[Chapter Ten]

When I woke up, I still had a dull ache in my head. I sighed. This boy is the trigger for these troublesome headaches and images…

I opened my eyes and squinted at the harsh fluorescent light. I groaned and suddenly the harsh light was gone.

"Kakashi?! Why did you turn the lights off? How are we supposed to see?" Someone yelled and I cringed at the noise.

"The light was clearly irritating her eyes, you idiot. Besides, you should be able to see easily in this much light. Why are you still here? Just leave already." And irritated voice answered back.

Ah. So Kakashi and Obito Uchiha were here then.

"Are you awake now Ayumi?" Kakashi asked.

I nodded and cracked my eyes open to take in my surroundings. It looks like I was in the hospital.

"How long have I been out for?" I asked Kakashi.

"Two days. After you passed out, we bought you to the hospital and we couldn't wake you up and nobody knew what was wrong with you. The Hokage was called and he asked what happened so I told him you passed out when you saw Obito and the Hokage summoned a Yamanaka and told me to leave… You were transferred here from wherever you were this morning." Kakashi explained.

"You should have seen yourself! You just passed out right in your ramen bowl!" Obito laughed.

"And who's fault do you think that was, idiot?" Kakashi hissed, obviously not pleased with the Uchiha boy.

I sighed.

"I'm Ayumi Uzumaki, by the way, Obito Uchiha, wasn't it?" I quickly spoke up.

The Uchiha boy grinned.

"Right! I'm Obito Uchiha and my dream is to be the Hokage! Nice to meet you!" He said loudly.

I cringed again.

"Shut up. You're being too loud." Kakashi said from his seat next to my bed.

"Likewise. You're on Kakashi's team right? Sorry for his behaviour, he seems cold, but really, he is a really good person." I said with a smile.

Kakashi looked scandalized. Obito laughed.

"I like you. You must be pretty good if you can get Kakashi to open up a bit." Obito smiled.

"Well, apparently I have a gift for it, so it isn't much really…" I said.

Kushina did say I have a knack for drawing people in, when I was in a good mood, of course.

"So when can I leave?" I asked, turning my attention to Kakashi.

"Well, the Hokage wanted to see you privately when you woke up, so I don't know yet. I should probably go tell a nurse you're up then." Kakashi said, getting up from his place.

He quickly left the room, but not before giving Obito a deadly glare.

Obito and I were quiet for a moment.

"So you are an Uzumaki huh? I thought Kushina-san was the only Uzumaki in Konoha?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Yup. Half Uzumaki, half Uchiha. Kushina is my cousin on my Mother's side." I explained.

"Eh?! You're half Uchiha? Does that mean we could be related?" Obito exclaimed.

"Yes, my Father was an Uchiha. We looked into my heritage, and Mikoto-san is my Auntie apparently… So unless you are related to her, then I doubt it. I only found out when I was training with my Sensei." I explained.

Obito frowned.

"No, I don't think I'm related to the main branch Uchiha family… So are you excited to activate your Sharingan?! I can't wait. Can you activate it though? Being only half Uchiha…" Obito perked up.

I sweat dropped.

"Um. I already activated mine… I do training every third week with Kagami-sensei." I said.

"What? Not fair! I'm older than you and you aren't even full Uchiha!" Obito yelled.

I cringed.

"Yes, well, I activated mine a few months ago when I found out my parents had died…" I mumbled.

Obito stared at me with pity.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." He muttered.

"No, it's okay, of course you didn't know." I said.

We fell into silence until Kakashi came back.

"The Hokage will be here soon; did you want me to stay until then?" Kakashi said.

I smiled.

"No, I'm fine. You can go do whatever you want. I'm sure Sakumo-sensei is missing you." I grinned.

Kakashi nodded.

"Okay then. Uchiha out. The Hokage will be here soon and you aren't supposed to be here, so you might as well clear out now." Kakashi said sternly.

Obito looked angry.

"I don't have to listen to you! I'll stay if Ayumi wants me too!" He yelled.

I sighed.

"Guys, calm down. Kakashi, Obito, both of you can go, I don't need babysitting." I said, rubbing my sore temple.

Kakashi smirked while Obito pouted.

They both left and I gave a small sigh of relief. Silence, much better.

After what I guessed to be ten minutes, the Hokage had arrived.

I sat up, without moving my head much and smiled politely.

"Ayumi-chan, it's good to see you awake now. You gave everyone quite the scare." Hokage-sama greeted with a chuckle.

"I'm sorry." I said quickly.

"No need to be sorry dear! It wasn't your fault, and we are glad to see you are awake now." The old man smiled.

"So what happened…? I only remember an explosion of pain in my head and then passing out in my bowl of ramen… I saw those images again." I asked.

The Hokage hummed in thought.  
"I thought that was the case. Tell me, could you make out these images at all?" He asked.

I paused and tried to think, but a spike of pain when through my head. I shook my head.

"I have a feeling I saw them more clearly than before, but I can't remember now. I just have a feeling that something is going to happen to Obito Uchiha, or I need to do something in connection to him… I don't understand." I admitted.

Again, the old man nodded.

"When I heard you were in the hospital, I sent a Yamanaka over immediately. She examined you, but she said she was too unexperienced to deal with what was wrong, so I summoned the clan head. He then went into your mind to have a look, he told me all he saw was a mass of tightly strung memories, but when he tried to unravel them to have a look, and he was rejected and thrown out of your mind." Hokage-sama explained.

I nodded and kept a calm face, but inside, I was scared. Was there something so wrong with my mind that even the clan head of the Yamanaka couldn't tell what was wrong…?

"We put you into an induced sleep until we could find a way to fix this in the meantime, we tried going into your mind a few times, but once we tried to unravel those memories, again we were rejected. This repeated itself over the past two days and last night we decided to wake you up and inform you of what was going on. I would like to suggest over the next few days we continue to try and crack your memories, but if we are not successful, I think we will have to lock the memories up tight so they don't harm you anymore." He further explained.

I cringed. Things were not looking good for me.

"Are you asking for my permission then?" I asked slowly.

"In sorts, yes. I have also sent out a message to Kushina to inform her of what has happened and I expect a reply by this afternoon. Kushina being your guardian will have final say, but I would like to ask of your true thoughts in the matter." He answered sagely.

I sighed.

"I am worried about what could happen to me if we can't fix this… But I'm also worried something might go wrong if people keep looking into my mind all the time. I would be grateful to get rid of these headaches and images, but is it worth the risk…?" I admitted quietly.

"You have such a smart head atop of those shoulders young Ayumi… As I said before, the final decision is up to Kushina, which I should have a reply by this afternoon. She and her team will be back in another two days, until then, I would like to keep you here in case something happens. I'll be seeing you again soon." Hokage-sama said as he stood up and turned to leave.

I nodded my head in respect and watched the old man go. When he was gone, I sighed. Things were going to get complicated fast.

A few hours later, Kakashi came back to visit me, with a certain Uchiha boy following him, much to his displeasure.

"Hey Ayumi!" Obito chirped happily while Kakashi huffed in annoyance and proceeded to shove Obito so he could sit in the chair next to my bed.

"Hey there." I smiled.

"So what did the Hokage say?" Obito asked.

I glanced at Kakashi, who was frowning, but I could see interest in his eyes too.

"Um, well, I have some problems with my memories and I get headaches often and Hokage-sama is helping me fix it." I told them.

"Oh. So why is he showing special interest in you anyway? Normally the Hokage doesn't drop everything to see a patient in hospital." Obito asked.

I wasn't sure how much I could tell Obito and Kakashi about the Hokage's plans for my future, so I decided to down play it.

"Um. I don't know really, maybe it's because I'm new here…? Or because I'm an Uzumaki? I don't know." I said awkwardly.

Obito believed me naturally, but Kakashi on the other hand… He was clearly sceptical of my flaky answer.

"So when can you leave? I don't want to fall behind on our training." Kakashi asked.

"Wait, you train with Ayumi, but not with your own team members?" Obito huffed.

I winced. I didn't know Kakashi wasn't training with his team…

"I was asked to help train her, and besides, she is easier to train with than you." Kakashi said rather coldly.

Obito glared.

"I'll train with you if you want? Or we could train together? Though I'm only just learning…" I spoke up I didn't want Obito to feel left out, and I had a feeling I should try to be friends with the boy.

"Really, that would be gr-"

"No."

Both boys said at the same time. I chuckled.

"Don't be like that Kakashi. I'm sure we could train together some time right? I can just come to a training session with you and your team, I'm sure Minato won't mind…" I said to the glaring boy.

"That's a great idea Ayumi! I'll go ask Rin right now." Obito exclaimed, suddenly standing up.

"Rin is busy helping out in a ward, so don't bother her." Kakashi sighed as Obito moved to leave.

"Right, okay. I'll see you later Ayumi!" Obito grinned and left.

I waved back with a cheery smile.

Kakashi sighed.

"He sure is interesting… He seems like a really good person though." I said with a small laugh.

"Don't even get me started on Obito… Now, do you care to tell me the real reason the Hokage is paying special attention to you?" Kakashi asked.

I sweat dropped.

"So you noticed that, huh?" I asked weakly.

"Naturally." Kakashi said simply.

I sighed. He might as well know, after all, he was my first friend and we spend a lot of our time together, he might find out anyway.

"Well, you see, since I am of Uzumaki and Uchiha blood that makes me have Uzumaki, Uchiha and Senju blood. You can probably tell already, that is some seriously powerful heritage… Now, there seems like there is no end in sight for this war, and because I am so academically advanced for my age, I can supposedly be put through training quicker and become a kunoichi faster. The Hokage expects great things from me in the future, mainly in helping stop this war in its tracks, so in saying that, we can't have me getting mentally sick, now can we?" I chuckled darkly.

Kakashi was quiet, and when I looked over at him, he looked angry.

"So ever since you arrive here, all anyone has thought about was using you as a tool of war?" Kakashi asked quietly.

I paused and thought about it.

"Well, to some extent, yes. Kushina though, she promised me she wouldn't let me go to war, and she somehow bought me more time for training. Kushina is the one who is trying to prevent me from being a tool. You see, she has me enrolled at the academy for the kunoichi classes, and I have to graduate as early as possible, and if I graduate at top of the class, which I have to, then I will do specialist training at the Okiya for three years, learning the arts of music, dance, language, kenjutsu, infiltration and so on, you get the picture. I will pretty much be a Geisha assassin." I told the boy.

Kakashi didn't look as angry as he did before, but he was still not pleased.

"And you have no choice in the matter, whatsoever? Do you even know what that job entails? You will have to sell yourself, and you are going along with this?" He asked.

"I could probably stop training if I really wanted too, but I do want to help Konoha and the people who are precious to me, and if this is the best and the fastest way in doing it, then so be it." I said softly, looking him right in the eye.

He sighed and nodded.

"I still don't think this is fair, but if it's what you want, then okay, I will help and protect you. But I will ask how you are so loyal to Konoha, when you have only lived here a few months?" Kakashi then asked.

I smiled happily now.

"That one is easy! The village I lived in with Mummy and Daddy wasn't a shinobi village, and all the citizens feared us, and shunned me, because of my different looks. Everyone there looked the same, plain hair and eyes, and I was a shock to them. They didn't like Mommy much either, with her red hair, but Daddy fit in. Konoha is much nicer, and I am accepted here, I have Kushina, Minato, Sakumo-sensei, Jiraiya-sensei and you, so how could I not love it here after never knowing that love before?" I explained.

Kakashi looked at me with startled eyes.

"I see." He said finally.

Kakashi and I talked quietly for another half an hour until the door burst open again. I jumped, while Kakashi sighed and rubbed his temple.

"Ayumi-chan! I'm back, and look! I brought Rin to come meet you!" The boy yelled happily.

This actually interested me, I still didn't know many people in Konoha and I was eager to meet new people, besides, this girl was Kakashi and Obito's teammate and Minato's student.

Obito stepped into the room first, with the girl behind him.

"Eh, sorry for the intrusion, Obito wanted me to meet a friend of his and Kakashi, and I couldn't really say no…" She said awkwardly, stepping forward.

She had short brown hair, with a cute face and two purple markings or her cheeks. She was petite, but I could tell she was older than me by at least three or four years, same with Obito.

"I'm Rin Nohara by the way, you are Ayumi right?" The girl introduced herself with a kind smile.

"Yes, I'm Ayumi Uzumaki, nice to meet you Rin!" I said, grinning.

"Oh yes, Obito told me you were half Uzumaki, half Uchiha right? That might be pretty interesting heritage." Rin said, making light conversation.

I laughed lightly.

"Well yes, it does keep things pretty interesting, have to stay on my toes, you know?" I smiled, while I looked over at Kakashi who had grumbled softly under his breath.

"Was something the matter Kakashi?" Rin asked worriedly.

I noticed how her attitude changed into a more of a fan girl mode when she turned her attention onto Kakashi, while Obito noticed and glared angrily.

"I'm fine." Kakashi huffed.

Seems to me he wasn't fond of the attention his female teammate gave him.

Kakashi's blunt and cold answer made Rin look like a whipped puppy and I felt sorry for her, Kakashi wasn't an easy person to get along with, but then again, you had to treat him like we wants to be treated, not fawned over.

"So Rin, Obito suggested I should train with your team one day, I think it might be fun, and I'm sure Minato won't mind, do you mind?" I decided to break the silence that had come over us.

Rin perked up happily.

"Sure! That sounds great! Oh… But Kakashi doesn't train with us much anymore, so I don't know if he will join in…" Rin said.

I looked away guiltily.

"Um, well, you see, Kakashi has been training with me for the past month or so, so that's probably why he hasn't been training with you guys… I'm sorry, I didn't know. So I thought it would be a good idea if I trained with your team, instead of just with Kakashi…" I said awkwardly.

Rin looked a little shocked and I swear I could see jealously in her eyes.

"I'm not agreeing to that. You and I have a strict training schedule and I don't want to mess it up to have you train with them, besides, what can you do with them? You haven't started in taijutsu or kenjutsu yet, and you only just started proper genjutsu training." Kakashi huffed angrily.

"Wait, you aren't a genin yet? I know you look young, but I thought you would have at least graduated if you are friends with Kakashi…" Rin asked.

I smiled and chuckled.

"You got me! I'm only five, one year younger than Kakashi here. My previous village wasn't a shinobi village so I wasn't never really properly trained, but my parents did start teaching me chakra control, tree jumping, senbon throwing and very basic beginners poison work. I decided to be a shinobi when I came here, so the Hokage put me into special training, so that's why…" I told her.

"You're only five?! I thought you would be at least seven or eight with the way you talk…" Rin exclaimed.

"Eh?! You're only five and you already activated the Sharingan? That's amazing Ayumi-chan!" Obito yelled over the top of Rin.

"Um, thank you?" I said with a chuckle.

After that, we all talked for another good hour and half, well Kakashi hardly said anything, and I had to push to get a reaction out of him. I knew if I wasn't there, he would have left ages ago.

Obito was just telling about his most recent reason as to why he was late to training; it had something to do with an old lady, when an ANBU member stepped into the room, much to everyone's surprise. Kakashi immediately tensed up and slightly shifted so he was in front of me more.

"Uzumaki-san? The Hokage has received notice from Kushina Uzumaki and wishes to see you, he will come in the next five minutes, and he asks you don't have anyone to overhear this business." The ANBU said.

I nodded and he disappeared.

"What was that all about…? That reminds me, you never did tell me why you are in the hospital…" Rin asked.

While I was a little surprised that Obito hadn't already told Rin why I was here, I figured I might as well tell her now/

"I have been having some trouble with my memories lately and I get bad headaches and I get really tired from them. It became so bad I actually passed out, so I was bought here and the Yamanaka were trying to fix it, but it's not that easy so now for further treatment on it, I needed my guardian's permission, which is Kushina, but she is on a mission right now, so we had to send a message and so that's why the ANBU came, because Kushina must have sent a message back." I explained.

"I see, but why is the Hokage coming then? Shouldn't it be referred to a doctor, or the Yamanaka?" She asked.

I shook my head.

"No, Hokage-sama is personally overlooking my treatment, so that's why he is coming." I explained, leaving out the obviously missing details.

Rin was about to question me further, but I cut her off with a clap of my hands.

"Okay guys, as much as I have loved meeting you Rin, and seeing you Obito, I have to kick you out, sorry." I said.

Rin nodded and stood up from her chair, pulling Obito with her.

"It was nice meeting you Ayumi, I hope to see you soon!" She said kindly and turned to leave.

"Hey! What about Kakashi?! Why does he get to stay?" Obito fumed.

"Because I'm special and you are not?" Kakashi said snidely.

I sighed.

"Because I have to ask him something about our training! And Kakashi? Don't be mean to Obito, it's not nice." I chided.

Obito pouted but left anyway, giving me a cheery wave.

"So why do I get to stay?" Kakashi asked once Obito and Rin were out of earshot.

"Because you know everything anyway and I will probably tell you about what's going on after the Hokage leaves anyway, so you might as well stay so I don't have to tell you later." I explained.

Kakashi nodded, and I could tell he was smug about the situation.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Hey guys :3 Welcome to another chapter update!**

**Ah, I'm really starting to feel the pressure of getting chapters out now, but it's all good fun.**

**I'm not sure if anyone has noticed, but I did kind of went off the rails with the recent events in my fanfic. I really had no idea I was going down on this path until I wrote it. But, in the chapter I am writing now, I have reigned it in and I'm getting to other things now, which should be interesting for me, as I still have no idea what I'm going to write until it's already written. xD**

**Well, I'm off to go write a bit on chapter fourteen and then off to bed xD Have a good night/day and I'll see you all in a fortnight!**

**R&R if you please ^.^**

* * *

[Chapter Eleven]

Kakashi and I sat in comfortable silence while we waited for the Hokage to arrive. We didn't have to wait all that long.

When the Hokage arrived, he had his ANBU escorts following in behind him.

"Ah, Kakashi what are you doing here? Visiting hours are almost up." Hokage-sama said with a smile. We could tell he was asking why he was here when this was supposed to be between the Hokage and I.

"Ayumi told me everything, including your plans for her future, so I decided I want to be informed of Kushina's decision and your plans on how you are going to go about this. Forgive me, but I will be staying." Kakashi said defiantly.

The Hokage looked over to me.

"And you are okay with this?" he asked me.

"He was bound to find out anyway, and as I said to him, it's easier if he hears it straight out, rather than me repeating it later." I shrugged.

"I see then. Well, as you probably know, Kakashi this is to stay between us, and only us unless it is absolutely necessary that the information is told to another person, understand?" Hokage-sama turned to Kakashi.

He nodded gravely.

"Okay then, now that is settled, let's get down to business. Kushina has sent back her answer regarding Ayumi's treatment." Hokage-sama stated.

Kakashi and I nodded.

"Kushina has stated that she believes Ayumi is old enough to decide on her own what she wants to do, but she has essentially agreed upon letting us delve into Ayumi's memories, but if Ayumi does say no, we will not touch her, as per Kushina's words." The old man explained.

I smiled slightly; of course Kushina would end up saying something like that. I wouldn't be surprised if Kushina also added a slight threat in there should I choose not to go with the treatment…

"So what exactly are these treatments then?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, we have the clan head of the Yamanaka enter Ayumi's mind and try to unravel the problem memories without being pushed out with her defences kicking in and expelling the foreign thing from her mind. If that does happen, we have to wait twenty four hours until we can try again, so we don't over tax and damage both Ayumi's mind, and anyone who is in her mind. Now, we will only try again a few times before we will resort to our last option, which is where we will go into her mind and lock away the problem area of her memories, so they are deep inside her mind and not cause any trouble." Hokage-sama explained.

Everyone nodded.

"What if those memories are, for whatever reason, accidently unlocked sometime in the future?" Kakashi asked.

I was interested in the Hokage's answer to this too.

"Truthfully, I have no idea. Should her memories unlock, this could be bad, or a good thing, the bad would be that they go back to the state they are in now and get worse like they have until they drive Ayumi insane, or they could completely unlock whatever is inside that ball and it will unravel itself and no longer be a problem, but whether the memories are tightly locked like that for a reason, then it might be a bad thing they unravel after all. We have not had this before, so I can't say I know what will happen." He answered us after thinking about it for a moment.

I sighed.

Things just look great, don't they?

The Hokage explained a few more things to us before scheduling for me to go to T&I early the next morning, and they would bring me back to the hospital once the session was over. I was told I would at least have to rest for an hour before I was free to leave, but be back in time for the next round.

I was happy they were at least letting me out in between, so I could do some training. I really hoped that while Minato was away and his team didn't have missions, I could train with them this week.

Strangely, I was drawn to Obito. He was just the type of person I wanted to be around. He was bright and kind, albeit a little silly, but that didn't matter to me. I wanted to stay close to this boy and keep an eye on him.

Naturally I was excited at the concept of getting to train with him, and Kakashi.

So now the Hokage had left a little while ago and I was sitting alone in my room. Kakashi had gone home after I reassured him I was fine by myself. I figured because both Minato and Kushina were away, I would stay at the hospital overnight.

And that now brings us to me sitting in the windowsill at the hospital, watching the sun go down. It was peaceful. I could hear the faint noises of the busy hospital in the background, but my room was quiet.

Suddenly, I heard a soft knock on my door. I looked over curiously, was Kakashi back? Or maybe Obito or Rin?

"Come in." I called.

The door slid open and there stood a smiling Mikoto Uchiha.

I smiled.

"Mikoto? What are you doing here?" I asked.

She smiled and stepped into the room.

"I heard you were here, well, actually, the Hokage came and asked me if you could stay with me at night this week, naturally I said yes, so here I am! Would you like to stay with Fugaku and I this week? I'm sure it would be lonely in here." Mikoto chirped.

I grinned and nodded.

I loved staying at the Uchiha's house, Mikoto always makes great food, and even though Fugaku was stern, he gave me training advice, and was a little soft around me.

"Are you sure though? I don't want to be a bother or anything…" I asked.

Mikoto chuckled.

"Don't be silly! Fugaku and I love having you over, you're such a pleasure!" She said.

"Well if you're sure about it then, I would love to stay with you." I smiled shyly.

"Perfect! Well, let's go then." Mikoto said holding her hand out for me.

I jumped off the windowsill and skipped over to Mikoto and grabbed her hand happily.

On our way out, we quickly stopped to tell a nurse I would be staying in the Uchiha compound at night and drop me off at T&I to see Kazou, the Yamanaka clan head.

Mikoto and I chatted on our ten minute walk back to the Uchiha compound. I told her about my training, random things I had seen or done and about how I had met Obito Uchiha and Rin.

"Obito hmm…? I recognize that name, where have I heard it…?" Mikoto hummed.

"He is on Minato's team, maybe Kushina had mentioned him?" I offered.

Mikoto shook her head.

"No, that's not it. Oh! Now I remember! He is the little orphan boy if I remember. Yes, Fugaku and I pulled him out of the orphanage and gave him his own house in the compound. Sweet boy he is, he sometimes comes around to help me with odd jobs, and I know he helps the elderly around town." Mikoto grinned.

I paused.

"Obito is an orphan…?" I asked.

Mikoto's smile faded.

"Yes, Obito was orphaned at a young age, if I remember. His parents died in the war, leaving baby Obito a war orphan. I believe I looked after him for a few weeks before he was moved to the orphanage. He was there until he was old enough to attend the Academy, then Fugaku and I gave him a house. He is always very positive though, which is good." She explained.

Poor Obito… You couldn't tell that happened to him just by looking at him. He was so cheerful and happy all the time, well, except when Kakashi is around, and then he seems to be standoffish with him.

We were just entering the compound and Mikoto had changed the topic to something lighter, but I continued to think about Obito. In a way, he was like me, but I had a family to live with after Mother and Father died, but Obito didn't…

Mikoto and I were walking along the quiet streets of the Uchiha compound when I heard someone yell out.

"Eh?! Ayumi? What are you doing here?" The person yelled.

I turned in surprise and came face to face with none other than Obito Uchiha.

"Obito! Fancy seeing you here." I grinned.

"Hello there Obito." Mikoto chuckled making herself known to the oblivious Uchiha.

"Oh! Mikoto-sama! Sorry, I didn't see you there…" He admitted awkwardly.

Mikoto and I giggled.

"So Ayumi, what are you doing out here with Mikoto-sama?" Obito asked.

I smiled.

"Well, I have to stay in the hospital a little longer, but that's just during the day, so since Mikoto is my auntie, and Kushina's best friend, she kindly offered to let me stay with her and Fugaku. Oh! Do you want to stay too? We can make a sleep over out of it!" I announced.

After I had said that, I realised I had just invited someone into Mikoto's house…

"Um. Is that ok? Can Obito stay over?" I asked, turning to Mikoto, who was watching us with amused eyes.

"Of course. The more the merrier. It would be nice to have some kids in the house anyway." She grinned.

If that wasn't a hint to Fugaku, I didn't know what was… Shame he wasn't here to hear it though.

Obito heartily agreed to stay over, so we told him to meet us at Mikoto's house while he went home to grab some stuff.

"Hmm, bringing home boys so early Ayumi-chan! You're going to be a heart breaker when you are older, I can tell. Oh, I can't wait to tell Kushina-chan." Mikoto hummed when Obito was safely out of ear shot.

I spluttered and blushed deeply.

"It's not like that! I only just met Obito!" I protested.

"Ah, yes, yes, whatever you say." She said with a wink.

I blushed and grumbled.

We safely made it home without Mikoto saying another word about my heart breaker future, thank god.

Fugaku was home early, which was rare, so I greeted him happily. He nodded sternly, but with soft eyes.

Mikoto came in and sat down across from Fugaku, next to me.

"Do you remember Obito Uchiha?" Mikoto asked him.

He nodded.

"I do. He was the orphan who stayed with us quite a few years ago. Why do you ask?" Fugaku answered.

"Well, Ayumi is friends with him and asked him to have a sleep over with her, I think it's a good idea, so he will be here soon." Mikoto explained.

Fugaku sighed.

"Very well then, for the sake for Ayumi's friend." He said.

I held back a giggle. Oh yes, the almighty Fugaku Uchiha was wrapped around my finger.

Mikoto clapped her hands together.

"Excellent. I'll go set up one of the rooms. Ayumi, you can stay here if you like, Obito should be here soon anyway." She smiled.

I nodded happily.

Mikoto left and I stood up from my pillow and went and sat next to Fugaku.

"So did you fight any hardened criminals today?" I asked with amusement.

He sighed.

"No Ayumi, I didn't. I was busy doing paper work and organising things for the war." Fugaku told me.

"That sucks. Do you want to know what I've been up to lately?" I asked.

"Not particularly, no." Fugaku replied.

I pouted.

"Don't be like that! You know you want to!" I sing-songed.

He sighed.

"Fine, if you must." He gave in.

I grinned in triumph.

"Ask me what I was up to then!" I said.

"What, no. Just tell me." He said.

"Come on, ask me or I won't tell you." I replied.

"No." Was his quick answer.

"Come on!" I whined.

"Fine, fine then. You are being most troublesome Ayumi, don't make a habit of it. What have you been doing lately then?" He growled.

"I'm glad you asked! Well, I met Obito and Rin Nohara this week, they are awesome. I've been doing my training with Kagami-sensei also; he said I was progressing well at noticing minor genjutsu and using the Sharingan for longer periods of time. Um. Kushina bought me a new kimono for school. Oh, and I tried cooking for the first time, I made yakitori, with the help of Kushina, but I made most of it!" I rambled.

I continued chatting at Fugaku for another few minutes. I knew he was frustrated with me, but he wasn't going to outright tell me to shut up.

Not long after, Mikoto came looking for me.

"Ah, Ayumi, come help me start dinner will you? We're having hotpot, so I need to chop lots of vegetables okay?" Mikoto smiled, coming to the rescue of Fugaku.

He looked relieved when I stood up and followed Mikoto into the kitchen. I sniggered.

Mikoto set me up with a pile of vegetables to cut while she started on the rice and broth.

A half an hour later and I was sitting at the table watching Mikoto cook. Obito still wasn't here.

"Do you think we should go look for him? Maybe he got lost or something…" I muttered to Mikoto.

She chuckled and shook her head.

"No, I'm sure he is fine. It's not unusual for him to be late to things I hear. Hmm, well I don't really need any more help in finishing dinner, and I think Fugaku is enjoying the silence, so why don't you go have a wander around and see if you spot Obito, huh?" Mikoto suggested.

I snickered about Fugaku. Mikoto raised an eyebrow.

"If you're sure you don't need any help, then I guess I can go for a wander around the block" I said.

Mikoto nodded.

"Good, good. Don't be out for too long though. Obito knows where we live, so he won't get lost, you on the other hand missy, have been known for getting lost, so just stick to one or two streets okay?" She said.

I grinned sheepishly.

"Got it! I'll be back soon." I chirped and ran out of the kitchen.

"And where are you going by yourself?" Fugaku asked casually as I ran past.

I skidded to a stop.

"I'm going to look for Obito. He's late. Want to come?" I announced.

Fugaku sighed and shook his head.

"No, I'm not coming. Don't get lost again; I don't want to send out a search team for you again." He said sternly.

"Hey! You only sent, like, three people! And I wasn't that lost…" I protested.

Fugaku shrugged and waved me off.

Okay so I lied… Fugaku did send out a mini search team for me… There was about ten Uchiha looking for me while I was exploring (getting lost in) the massive Uchiha compound.

Fugaku wasn't happy with me, to say in the least. He didn't speak to me for three whole days after that, not that I minded, I chatted at him like normal anyway, well until Mikoto dragged me away from her annoyed husband.

While I was getting better at navigating the confusing roads, I was limited to three blocks so far before I got lost again, but I normally found my way back by climbing up a tree or onto a house and spotting familiar places.

I like to think I was doing well, considering how large the place was, and I was only here a couple times a week, it wasn't like I lived here or anything.

So in the meantime I was kind of just standing in the doorway staring off into space.

"Ayumi? What are you doing now?" Fugaku asked, pulling me out of my trance.

"Huh? Oh, um, nothing, just thinking!" I chirped as I started on my way out again.

"Ayumi." Fugaku stopped me.

"Ugh, yes?" I asked confused.

"You didn't use your manners again. As a main family branch member of the Uchiha, you need to use proper manners at all times, understand?" He sighed.

I pouted.

I forgot to bow on my way out… Now Fugaku was probably going to scold Kushina or Minato for not teaching me proper etiquette again. It wasn't the first time he had done it. Fugaku actually wanted me to live with him and Mikoto, because like he said, I was related directly to the main branch family of the Uchiha, technically, I was the heiress for the Uchiha family, but that was all hush, hush between just a few people.

So that leads me as to why Fugaku wanted me to learn proper manners and the way of the Uchiha.

"Yes, sorry, sorry. I won't do it again, but my last name is Uzumaki, you know that." I said.

Fugaku nodded and looked at me with a sharp eye.

"Indeed, for now it is." He said before he dismissed me and I bowed and turned to leave.

Ugh.

Fugaku had some sort of idea that I was actually going to become a proper heiress to the Uchiha clan… I had no intention of letting that happen. In fact, if I was going to become an heiress to a clan, it would be the Uzumaki clan for sure.

I know before I came to Konoha, the Uzumaki clan wasn't considered a clan anymore because Kushina was supposedly the last one (but we all know there are others scattered across the nations) and when I had officially been registered as a citizen of Konoha, that made me an official Uzumaki, making us a proper clan in Konoha again! Kushina was the head, obviously, and she was allowed to go to clan meetings and do cool clan stuff, or so I hear.

When I'm old enough, I'm defiantly going to marry someone who will be willing to take on my name and we will restore the Uzumaki clan!

Okay, so I was only five, and a bit early to be thinking that far ahead, but a girl needs a future plan, no?

I made my way to the front of the house and quickly slipped my shoes on. I left the house and started down the street.

Mikoto wouldn't be done with dinner for a while, and Fugaku was getting annoyed with me, so I did have plenty of time to search for Obito, but I was only allowed two blocks…

I glanced back at the house and around the streets.

Well, I did have time to spend… I quickly jumped up onto one of the roofs and looked around.

The streets were tightly packed together and went in all kinds of crazy directions. Whoever thought up the housing plan was stupid making it so hard to navigate.

I found a basic pattern of the two blocks from Mikoto's house quickly used the same pattern to extend my boundaries by another two blocks.

I grinned.

Now I had four blocks to find Obito (explore) in, and plenty of time to spare. Also, by pure luck, the start of the shopping district was within those four blocks! And luckily, I had my little money bag tucked in my long sleeves. Maybe I'll buy something nice for everyone…

I jumped down from the roof I was standing on and started walking down the street, keeping my eyes peeled for Obito.

And thus was how my epic journey of finding Obito Uchiha started!

Yeah, okay, so it wasn't very epic, but it sounded cool like that okay? I was five, making things sound cool was my speciality!

I think…


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Hello again everyone!**

**Another chapter coming your way. ^.^**

**We all excited for this week's Naruto chapter? I can't wait to see what goes down now. Anyone follow Fairy Tail either? I haven't read the latest chapter yet, but it's on my to-do list today! ;D**

**Anyway, this is second to last pre-written chapter I have done (scury) I'm trying to get chapter 14 started, but I do have a set idea of where the chapter will go, so that's good.**

**I hope you enjoy this one! See you all in a fortnight.**

**R&R if you please ;3**

* * *

[Chapter Twelve]

On my (not so) epic journey through the Uchiha compound, I made sure to leave a trail behind so I wouldn't get lost. I really didn't need Fugaku sending out a search team for me again… It didn't end well.

So, this time, as I said, I left a trail. I used senbon by sticking them into a fence or tree as my markers as I went along.

As I walked, when people saw me, they either stared or bowed. The people who bowed knew I was related to the main family, but didn't know I was in the running for heiress.

I waved cheerfully at everyone, even the ones who whispered and stared. What better way to beat your enemy by smiling and showing them they don't affect you?

Kushina taught me that, although she doesn't even follow her own advice… She can get pretty violent at times.

I slowly walked through the compound, making sure to memorise every little detail I could. In the meantime, I was still keeping an eye out for Obito… Well sort of.

An hour later and I had fully explored my designated area. Still no sign of Obito.

I remembered I wanted to buy things for everyone, so I went back to the shopping district. I wanted to pick nice things, but quickly, because I'm sure Mikoto would be wondering where I was by now.

Walking around, I found a nifty little trinket stall. Having a closer look, I saw a few things that would be good to buy.

For Mikoto, I bought her a nice little bookmark that had elegant scrolling lines and small outlines of sparrows.

I spotted a nice calligraphy brush, and bought it for Fugaku.

The most expensive gift I bought was for Kushina, it was high grade fuinjutsu paper, and I cringed when I looked how much was left in my money bag… Not much.

Giggling when I saw a perfect gift for Minato, I immediately bought it. It was a cup that had Hokage wanna be carved on it. I found it funny, and I was sure Minato would too.

I wandered around again until I came across a small shop that sold sweets. I smiled and ducked in and bought a small bag, my gift for Obito.

I frowned in thought when I wondered what I could buy for Kakashi. Couldn't leave him out, of course.

When I did finally spot something, I thought Kakashi might not like it, but I think it will suit him. It was a simple bracelet made out of chakra beads. The seller told me that you could store small amount of elemental chakra into each bead. I thought it was cool.

I didn't really want to leave Rin out, even though I just met her, so I bought her a cute necklace with different pendants jingling around.

Toting my goods around, I headed off back in the direction of Mikoto's house. Obito was either already there, or he ditched us. It really does not take that long to pack a change of clothes.

Just as I turned a corner, something caught my eye.

I paused and turned. I went back around the corner to investigate.

As it turns out, the 'something' that had caught my eye, was none other than Obito Uchiha…

He was talking to an old woman. He also had changed into the typical high collared Uchiha top and black shorts. He still wore his goggles though, and he had a small backpack slung over his shoulder.

The old woman he was talking to smiled and gave him a pat on the head. Obito grinned and turned and started to walk away, giving a wave over his shoulder. He was headed this way.

I grinned as I pulled back and leaned against a fence in the shadows and waited.

When Obito came past, I reached out and grabbed him.

He screamed and jumped into the air.

"Fancy meeting you here!" I laughed.

When Obito noticed it was me, he calmed down and grinned sheepishly, while scratching the back of his head.

"Ayumi! You scared me! Ehe, I was just on my way to meet you, but then this old lady dropped her shopping and I had to help pick it up and then she needed help crossing the street, 'cause it's busy around this time you know? And then we just got talking and yeah…" Obito rambled.

I giggled.

"It's fine, I was just exploring anyway, and I bought everyone a gift too!" I reassured him.

"Whoa, you got me a gift? Can I see, please can I see?" Obito said excitedly.

I smirked.

"You can wait until after dinner. Mikoto and Fugaku are waiting for us. Come on, let's go!" I said as I grabbed Obito's hand and pulled him along, running in the direction of Mikoto's house, with Obito yelling at me to slow down.

When we arrived at the doorstep to the house, Obito was panting heavily, while I was only a little out of breath.

"Where did you lean to run that fast for so long?!" Obito cried.

I giggled.

"I've been training with Kakashi, remember? Because I haven't learned much yet, all we can do it aim practice, weight training and running. Lots of running. We do laps around Konoha every session." I told him.

Obito pouted.

"Come now Obito, don't be sad that a five year old can out run you." I smirked and pulled him into the house.

"Now I know why Kakashi likes you, you're just as mean as he is!" Obito whined.

I sighed.

We went into the sitting area, where I knew Fugaku would still be.

"I'm back! And I brought Obito with me!" I called.

Fugaku was standing with his back to me, talking to a small group of Uchiha. When I called out he spun around and frowned.

"Ayumi! Where have you been for the past two hours?! We thought you had gotten lost again and I was about to send out a search party for you!" He fumed.

Obito recoiled at the harsh voice of the Uchiha clan head. I, on the other hand, smiled guiltily and fiddled with my hands.

"Well, I went exploring and kind of extended the two blocks you allowed…? Then I looked for Obito for a while and then bought some stuff. After that I was about to come home, but I found Obito so I grabbed him and here we are!" I announced.

At that time, Mikoto had come rushing into the room.

"Ayumi!" She cried before running at me and squeezing me to death.

"We were so worried about you! You really need to stop disappearing. You are only five Ayumi!" Mikoto told me.

I smiled warmly and hugged her back.

"It's fine! I knew where I was, I just got carried away is all…" I reassured her.

She nodded and pulled back, giving me a smile, before she spotted Obito, who was looking at us like we were crazy.

"Obito! Nice to see you finally got here. Welcome. Fugaku and I were just waiting on you and Ayumi for dinner, so let's eat now, okay?" She said kindly.

He nodded dumbly.

Fugaku ignored us as we went into the dining area to start on dinner.

I sighed.

Now Fugaku was going to be in a bad mood for a while. Oh. Maybe I could give him his calligraphy brush I bought him?

Mikoto set up the hot pot in the middle of the table and I quickly pulled Obito over to the table and sat him down and climbed up into the chair next to him.

"Whoa, I didn't notice before, but you are really small, aren't you Ayumi?" Obito chuckled while I climbed up.

Mikoto chuckled lightly and I pouted.

"Hey, that's not fair! I'm only five. You're at least five years older than me Obito!" I huffed.

He chuckled.

"I'm sorry! I forgot you're only five, what with the way you talk." He apologized.

I smiled.

Mikoto had finished setting up the table with the pot simmering away and the raw meat all laid out nicely for us to cook at our own leisure.

"Is Fugaku coming?" I asked Mikoto.

She smiled a little sadly.

"No dear, he went off into his study, so I think he might be there all night doing paperwork." She said.

"Oh, okay. Well, we will leave some leftovers for him then!" I announced.

Mikoto nodded and handed Obito and I a pair of chopsticks each.

We both thanked her and begun to dig in happily.

The atmosphere during the rest of the meal was light and happy, with a little tension about the absence of Fugaku, but Obito, Mikoto and I had fun.

After Obito and I helped Mikoto clean up dinner, I showed Obito into the spare room Mikoto had set up for us. It was impressive to say in the least.

Mikoto has made us a pillow forte\, a huge one. It covered most of the room, and had little fairy lights up everywhere too. Our futons were next to each other against the far wall, outside of the fort, but from what I could see, there were tones of pillows inside the fort anyway.

"Whoa…" Obito said.

"Yeah…" I agreed.

Obito turned to me suddenly and grinned.

"This is so awesome! Does Mikoto-sama normally make a huge fort for you?" Obito asked excitedly.

"No… This is the first time actually." I answered.

"Oh. But this is so cool! Come on, let's check it out!" He chirped before grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the entrance of the fort.

We climbed in and looked around. The space was huge. It had lots of pillows to lie on, fairy lights up; it even had a projector in there to watch movies!

I grinned happily. Tonight was my first sleep over, and it was going to be awesome!

That night, Obito and I stayed up really late, watching movies, talking and eating snacks. It was a great night.

We told each other all about ourselves that night. I'm sure there wasn't anything that we didn't know about each other at this point. I even told him about the Hokage's plans for me. Obito was shocked like Kakashi was, but he was louder about it all. He even vowed to become Hokage to stop me from being used.

I laughed sadly at that.

Obito was sweet and I could already tell we were best friends, just from that one night, but he couldn't save me from my fate. I was just like every other shinobi, I had a duty to protect my village, and Obito couldn't stop me.

But other than that, I was going to cheer Obito on, to become the Hokage one day, I was sure he could do it.

The next morning, Obito, Mikoto and I were having breakfast, and Fugaku surprisingly decided to join us.

I grinned.

"Hey, I have something really awesome to show you guys, so wait here, okay?" I said to Mikoto and Fugaku.

Mikoto smiled gently and nodded, while Fugaku pretty much ignored me and continued reading a scroll he had.

I jumped off of my chair and went into our room, Obito deciding to follow after me.

"What are you getting?" He asked.

"My present for Mikoto and Fugaku." I replied easily as I searched.

"Oh. Did you buy them lollies too?" Obito asked, his eyes lighting up and the mention of sweets.

"Nope. Something better." I smirked.

Obito pouted.

"Why did you get them something better?" He whined.

I laughed, turning around with my goods and headed out of the room.

"Because Fugaku doesn't like sweets and I owe both him and Mikoto anyway." I simple told Obito, walking down the hall.

When we got back to the kitchen, I climbed back onto my chair and handed Mikoto and Fugaku their gifts, grinning.

"Oh, what's this Ayumi? Did you buy these for us?" Mikoto asked happily.

"Yup, and with my own pocket money. I thought they would suit you and I wanted to thank you for looking after me." I smiled shyly.

Mikoto squealed and rushed out of her chair and hugged me tightly.

"Aw! You are just too cute!" She sung.

I smiled.

Fugaku on the other hand, scolded his wife for being childish.

"You don't need to waste good money on buying frivolous things, Ayumi. You need to learn to save up and use money wisely." Fugaku told me, but secretly, I think he liked his present.

Mikoto gave me a knowing look.

"Well thank you Ayumi, they are both very lovely. Now, both of you go get cleaned up and ready. I've got to take Ayumi to T&I this morning." Mikoto smiled softly.

I nodded quickly and grabbed Obito and left the kitchen.

"So what are you doing today?" I asked Obito while I searched for the things I needed to get ready.

"I don't know. I was thinking of going to see Rin?" Obito answered.

I smirked.

"Oho? Why don't you buy her some flowers today or something?" I suggested.

Yes, Obito had told me all about his crush on Rin Nohara. I felt sorry for him, because Rin clearly had eyes only for Kakashi, but I didn't want to ruin his dreams, so I decided to help him out anyway.

"Oh! That's a good idea! What kind should I get then?" Obito exclaimed.

"Well, nothing to romantic yet, start slow, so maybe some daisies or wildflowers? Not roses though, not yet." I said thoughtfully.

Obito grinned happily.

"Thanks Ayumi! You're such a great help! I'm glad I met you." He told me.

I smiled softly.

"Yeah, so am I Obito, so am I." I said.

Mother did say I was going to make good friends, and I was certain Obito Uchiha was going to be a very close friend, for the rest of my life, no matter how short or long it may be…

Later on, Obito and I split ways when Mikoto and I headed out for T&I.

"I'll see you later then, Obito." I said with a smile.

Obito nodded.

"You are going to be okay though right?" He asked.

I could tell he was worried, and a little guilty that this was all happening because he was some sort of a trigger.

"Well sure. The Hokage just said I'll be knocked out with some gas and then the Yamanaka will do their stuff. Nothing major yet. I'll just be a little tired is all. How about you come see me after then?" I reassured the boy.

Obito nodded eagerly.

"I'll be there for when you wake up, just watch!" He chirped.

I giggled.

"Okay, I believe you. We should be going now, so I'll see you soon!" I said and gave Obito a hug.

He hugged back and nodded.

When I pulled back, I turned to Mikoto.

"I'm ready! Let's go." I sung.

She nodded and held my hand as we turned and left Obito behind.

I turned and waved happily.

Obito waved too.

I turned back to Mikoto and smiled happily.

"Thank you for letting Obito stay over last night." I chirped.

Mikoto shook her head with a smile.

"No, it was a pleasure. I love children anyway, so it was a nice change from just Fugaku and me alone in that big house." She answered.

I looked at her curiously.

"You want kids too, don't you?" I asked.

Mikoto blushed deeply.

"Well, yes, I would like to have children in the future. I think it's a little early for us at the moment." She chuckled.

I grinned.

"I think you will be a great mum! And Fugaku too! Although he would be a dad, obviously not a mum because he is a gu-"

"Ayumi, you're rambling." Mikoto interjected.

"Right! Sorry." I giggled.

"Well, thank you for think that! But let's focus on getting you to where you need to be, yes?" Mikoto smiled.

"Yes!" I sung happily.

Mikoto smiled at my cheerfulness.

We arrived at T&I about five minutes later and Mikoto had tensed up. She was worried, that much you could tell.

We were ushered through the building quickly by an ANBU guard, and led into a small white room with a plush chair in the middle and a little table next to it, nothing else.

"Because that doesn't look weird…" I muttered quietly, and Mikoto chuckled nervously.

"Well at least you have a nice chair to sit in, right?" Mikoto said.

I nodded.

Just at that moment, the Yamanaka clan head, Kazou entered the room.

He had long blonde hair pulled up into a low pony tail, with a few long strands covering his face. Instead of normal Konoha shinobi wear, he was wearing a doctor's uniform, which was odd, but didn't really surprise me. If I had to guess, I would say that Kazou Yamanaka was in his fifties, making him quite old to be a clan head.

"Good morning Ayumi-chan, Mikoto-sama." Kazou said with a kind smile.

We both bowed and greeted him back.

"So you have been already debriefed about the procedure, so I think we can get started straight away. Ayumi, if you would like to take a seat in the chair please." Kazou continued.

I nodded and climbed up onto the chair.

"Is it alright if I stay until you start, Kazou-sama?" Mikoto asked.

"Yes, that's quite okay. I'll be giving Ayumi a serum that will put her to sleep and give me better access to her mind, so when she is asleep, then I'll start." He nodded.

Kazou was holding a big doctor's bag, and set it up on the table.

When he pulled out a syringe with a clear liquid in it, that's when I started to freak. Had I ever mentioned I hate needles? I have? Well, I'll say it again, I absolutely hate needles.

"Um. So, is that needle really needed? I mean, you can't use gas or something? Or even a jutsu? Surely we don't need to use the needle, like how old fashion you know?" I rambled quickly.

Mikoto raised her eyebrow.

"Ayumi… Are you scared of the needle?" She asked.

I chuckled nervously.

"What? No. Of course not! Why would I be scared of something like that…?" I said hesitantly.

Mikoto smiled warmly and patted my head.

"It's not going to hurt you, so you don't need to be afraid." She reassured me.

"I know that, I don't know, they just freak me out!" I whined.

"I'm sorry Ayumi, but we're going to have to use the needle. Just close your eyes and think of something else, okay?" Kazou said kindly.

I swallowed hard and nodded tightly.

Grabbing Mikoto's hand, I held on tightly and shut my eyes.

"Okay, here we go, in three, two, one." Kazou counted.

I felt the sting in my arm and jumped slightly, holding onto Mikoto tighter. I could feel the cold liquid going into my arm, and it was creepy.

"There we go, all done now." Kazou said and I opened my eyes again.

"See, that wasn't too bad, right?" Mikoto teased.

I grumbled under my breath and shuddered.

"So what now?" I asked.

Kazou pulled out a small monitor from his bag with a cord attached.

"Well, I'll hook this heart monitor up to you, just so we can keep an eye on your heart rate during the procedure. After I hook you up, we just have to wait until you fall asleep. It shouldn't take long. The serum should take effect in the next minute or two." He explained.

I nodded.

Kazou attached the cord onto my finger with a little Band-Aid, and turned on the machine. It beeped to life, showing my heart rate line on the screen.

And then we waited.

"You'll come pick me up right? At the hospital?" I asked Mikoto tiredly. The serum was starting to kick in.

"Yes, I'll come by and spend some time with you before I can bring you home. Maybe I'll bring Obito along with me hey?" Mikoto teased.

I started to scowl before I was interrupted by a yawn.

"Don't try and fight it Ayumi, just let it work." Mikoto said after she caught me trying to keep my eyes open.

I nodded softly before closing my eyes and my breathing evened out as I fell asleep.

I prayed to whoever was out there, that this procedure worked the first time. I felt my mind completely relax and open up as I fell asleep.


End file.
